A Mid Sussex firm found itself at the centre of a diplomatic row which erupted in a small Central American state.

Staff at Corfe Communications were delighted to win a contract to supply telephone services to the British High Commission in Belize.

The company agreed to create a UK-style call back telephone system for Government officials.

Unknown to the Cuckfield-based firm, the deal caused ructions at the highest level.

Belize Telecommunications, which provides all of the state's phone needs, complained to the Foreign Office that the agreement was illegal.

The High Commission was paying Corfe Communications about £1,000 a month, depending on the rate of calls made to the UK, for responding to calls back to Britain.

The commission was saving much more by not making expensive international calls, a system used by diplomatic offices across the globe.

The High Commission insisted the call-back facility was allowed under Belize law and insisted it would continue to use it.

The Foreign Office argued that stopping the service would be a breach of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic rights.

Although the story made the national newspapers, nobody made the connection with the firm, which employs six people.

Corfe Communications' chairman Stuart Bailey said: "It was all over the papers, all over the BBC television and on the radio.

"I nearly fell off my chair when I heard it.

"It's not one of our biggest customers and all of a sudden it became front page news everywhere.

"When I saw the way they had presented it on television it could have been a cause for concern.

"But once I looked into it and saw what the Foreign Office had to say I realised that it was something that started last year and had come to a head.

"It was rather interesting for it to come out as a newsworthy piece bearing in mind we are a relatively small company."

He said he believed the matter had now been resolved and appeared to have died down.

He said: "They are still using the system and they are still happy with it so I think that's probably an end to the matter."

Corfe uses a £500,000 communications system to link telephone users all over the world through networks. It makes money by charging for each call.

The firm's latest venture has been the setting up of a service to allow Chinese emigrants to call home at special rates on the first day of the Chinese New Year, which was yesterday.