In an explosive phone argument that led to her firing, publisher Judith Regan allegedly complained of a "Jewish cabal" and stated that Jews "should know about ganging up, finding common enemies and telling the big lie."

Andrew Butcher, spokesman for Regan's former employer, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., said yesterday that the remarks were made during a conversation between Regan and HarperCollins attorney Mark Jackson.

Since 1994, Regan had led the ReganBooks imprint at News Corp.'s HarperCollins. She was fired Friday.

Regan, one of the book world's most successful and controversial publishers, already had tense relations with HarperCollins and News Corp. before last month, when Murdoch cancelled If I Did It, her O.J. Simpson book, on the eve of its publication.

Butcher said that Regan and Jackson were discussing an upcoming Regan book, Peter Golenbock's 7: The Mickey Mantle Novel, in which the author, imagining he is the former Yankee, confesses in detail to a life of sexual exploits. With Mantle's family and fans enraged, Regan and Jackson were discussing the timing and content of the book. Regan became enraged and lashed out.

She complained that Jackson, HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, HarperCollins Executive Editor David Hirshey and longtime literary agent Esther Newberg were a "Jewish cabal," Butcher said.

Reagan's lawyer, Bert Fields, acknowledged that Regan argued with Jackson but denied she said anything anti-Semitic.

The Associated Press