UK's Cameron again defends minister on News Corp.

Cameron's endorsement of Hunt's performance followed the disclosure that Hunt had written to the prime minister in glowing terms about the possible takeover about a month before he was put in charge of the process.

"I don't regret giving the job to Jeremy Hunt, it was the right thing to do in the circumstances, which were not of my making," Cameron said in an interview with ITV.

The circumstances were that the authority for the bid was taken away from Business Secretary Vince Cable after he was caught telling undercover newspaper reporters that he had "declared war" on Murdoch, the powerful News Corp. chairman and CEO.

"The crucial point, the really crucial point, is did Jeremy Hunt carry out his role properly with respect to BSkyB? And I believe that he did," Cameron said.

The embattled Hunt will make his own case next Thursday when he testifies at the Leveson Inquiry which is investigating phone hacking at News Corp. newspapers and broader media issues. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair will testify on Monday and Cable on Wednesday, officials said.

On Thursday, the inquiry published a memo dated Nov. 19, 2010, from Hunt to Cameron reporting that Murdoch's son James was "pretty furious" about the obstacles to the company's bid for the lucrative broadcaster.

James Murdoch, who was then chairman of BSkyB, hoped the takeover would shake up Britain's media industry the same way his father had done in the 1980s by revolutionizing newspaper production, Hunt wrote.