News of the World Closes: Ex Editor 'To Be Arrested'

Scotland Yard was unable to confirm reports that Mr Coulson was due to meet officers.

He resigned in January as Downing Street communications chief, saying the drip-drip of claims about illegal eavesdropping under his editorship was making his job impossible.

A second former senior journalist at the newspaper will also be arrested in the next few days, the Guardian said.

The axe fell on the Sunday paper after a series of increasingly damaging allegations left its reputation in tatters.

James Murdoch, chairman of publisher News International, said the 168-year history of Britain's best-selling newspaper would end after Sunday's publication.

The bombshell announcement came as advertisers deserted the News of the World in droves and police revealed 4,000 people may have had their phones hacked.

Mr Murdoch, the son of Rupert Murdoch, pulled the plug on the paper after claims that it paid private investigators to illegally intercept voicemail messages.