Baku, January 23, AZERTAC

Google has agreed to pay £130m in back taxes after an "open audit" of its accounts by the UK tax authorities.

The payment covers money owed since 2005 and follows a six year inquiry by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.

Google is one of several multinational companies to be have been accused of avoiding tax, in spite of making billions of pounds of sales in Britain.

Senior figures at the US search giant said it would follow new rules which would see it pay more taxes in future.

Matt Brittin, head of Google Europe, told the BBC: "Today we announced that we are going to be paying more tax in the UK.

"The rules are changing internationally and the UK government is taking the lead in applying those rules so we'll be changing what we are doing here. We want to ensure that we pay the right amount of tax."