David Oddsson, a former chairman of the Central Bank of Iceland's board of governors, has said he received a guarantee from Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, that Reykjavik would not have to chip in towards deposit guarantees on the accounts of British and Dutch citizens in Icesave.

Oddsson told Vidskiptabladid, an Icelandic financial newspaper, in an interview published on Monday that King had given him the assurance in the lead-up to the collapse of Landsbanki, the parent of