The remarks, which were said to have included a four-letter outburst and a reference to all Germans being "Nazis", made mockery of German publisher Axel Springer's bid for The Telegraph.

Express directors were reported to have greeted Telegraph chief executive Jeremy Deedes and finance director Niamh O'Donnell-Keenan with "guten morgen", and "sehr gut".

Events escalated, and after Desmond mimicked a "Basil Fawlty" style walk, Telegraph directors were said to have left the room in disgust, abandoning the scheduled meeting.

The meeting was held earlier today at West Ferry's Docklands site. It was the monthly meeting of the print plant's finance committee.

This afternoon a spokesman for Richard Desmond seemed to question the veracity of the account. He said: "I just read a very interesting interpretation of what was a very productive one-and-a-half hour meeting."

Read the full text of the MediaGuardian story here.