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The revelations are part of the annual Intelligence and Security oversight report, which analyses the issues facing the UK security services during the previous year.

"One of the greatest challenges for GCHQ is to maintain its intercept capability in the face of rapidly evolving communications technology," the report says. "This relates in particular to the growth in internet-based

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communications and voice over internet telephony."

The report then goes on to outline some of the specific challenges facing today's wire-tappers: "The internet uses a very different approach to communications, rather than having any sense of fixed lines, there is a big network with a number of nodes, but for any individual communicating, their communications are broken up into shorter packets," comments Sir David Pepper, director of GCHQ

"So whether you are sending an email or any other form of internet communication, anything you send is broken up into packets. These packets are then routed around the network and may go in any one of a number of different routes because the network is designed to be resilient... This [represents] the biggest change in telecoms technology since the invention of the telephone. It is a complete revolution."

The comments will make grim reading for Home Secretary Jacqui Smith who recently pledged to make the internet a "no-go" area for terrorists.