A committee of MPs has expressed concern at cutbacks in the number of languages in which the BBC World Service broadcasts.

Friday's report from the foreign affairs committee also detailed fears about the direction of English language programming.

There was also praise for the World Service, with the report concluding it had "another successful year" in 2004/05.

But concern centred on last month's move to cut back the number of languages broadcast by the World Service from 42 to 32.

"We conclude that the reduction in the BBC World Service's language range, which mirrored the direction given by government, was regrettable," said the report.

"We recommend that the BBC World Service in consultation with the Foreign Office review regularly its language services for impact and financial value but do its utmost to preserve and extend its language services upon which so many depend for its trustworthy news and information.

"We conclude that this is particularly important in those countries where there is no properly functioning parliamentary democracy, inadequate freedom of the media and significant violation of human rights, and we recommend that the BBC World Service is funded accordingly."

The MPs also warned that the World Service's English output must continue to include "a significant proportion of programmes which promote British culture and Britain's creativity to overseas audiences".

"It is this mixture of programming which is the World Service's attraction and a characteristic of its success," they said.

"We recommend that under no circumstances should the World Service's English language programming be allowed to evolve into just a news and information service."