Labour is urging the SNP to answer 25 questions about its links with the company at the centre of the News of the World hacking scandal.

The party has published the list of questions, including asking when First Minister Alex Salmond last met with News International chairman James Murdoch, as well as how much the SNP has spent on advertising with the company in the past four years.

Labour's business manager Paul Martin said: "There are a lot of unanswered questions over the SNP's links with News International.

"Throughout the entire phone hacking scandal, Alex Salmond has ditched his usual megaphone diplomacy and has been uncharacteristically silent.

"Alex Salmond has desperately attempted to come across as whiter than white by keeping schtum and resorting to his default position of blaming Westminster.

"He would clearly rather we all ignored the fact that he personally met with James Murdoch, wined and dined the editor of the Scottish News of the World and provided free articles and advertising to News International newspapers worth thousands of pounds.

"If the SNP have nothing to hide then Alex Salmond must speak out and convince the public there has been no quid pro quo for Rupert Murdoch's support of the SNP."

But the SNP condemned Labour's attack.

A party spokesman said: "This is embarrassing nonsense from Paul Martin - he obviously doesn't let the facts get in the way of a bad press release.

"For example, the First Minister was on record at a press conference last week calling on Rebekah Brooks to step down, and also gave numerous broadcast interviews supporting the Commons motion - of which the SNP was a co-sponsor - calling on News Corp's BSkyB bid to be withdrawn."

In addition, Alex Salmond is urging the public inquiry into phone hacking and media regulation to consider a 2006 report on privacy laws being broken.

He highlighted the Operation Motorman report after he was asked by UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to comment on the inquiry's remit.

Mr Salmond said the study revealed about 3000 cases of various newspapers breaking data protection laws.

He said: "We welcome the judge-led public inquiry announced last week into the appalling hacking activities uncovered and other illegal press practices, and are calling for its terms of reference specifically to include inquiring into the Information Commissioner's Operation Motorman report of December 2006 - which documented breaches of data protection laws across a range of newspaper titles - and why no action was taken despite tough recommendations.

"We will submit the Scottish Government's full response to the UK Government's draft terms of reference tomorrow, and trust that it will secure a positive response so that the inquiry can be comprehensive and thorough in the public interest."

IN DETAIL

• News of the World to close amid phone hacking scandal