Chancellor Gordon Brown has requested an inquiry into the leaking of recommendations contained in Lord Turner's pensions report.
A Treasury-led inquiry will hope to uncover who leaked the details of the long-awaited commission report.
Earlier on Friday Downing Street was forced to deny claims it leaked parts of the much anticipated Pensions Commission report in order to undermine the chancellor.
Brown criticised elements of Turner's recommendations on pensions reform that surfaced prior to the publication of his findings next week.
According to media reports, Brown's supporters had been blaming Number 10 for the original leak, saying represented an attempt to undermine the chancellor.
However the prime minister's official spokesman insisted that
"I can categorically deny, as far as my knowledge goes and those I have spoken to in No 10, that we were not responsible for the leak," he said.
"We want this to be a debate that debates the Turner Report as a whole and not elements of what is thought to be in it.
"We believe that it is a serious analysis that deserves serious treatment, not one-sided leaking."
He said that the government's position on pension reform remained: "nothing is ruled in, nothing is ruled out".
Anger
Meanwhile, Lord Turner hit back at the chancellor's coded criticism of the peer's forthcoming pensions report.
Brown had questioned the accuracy of the pensions commission's report.
The chancellor is also said to be unsure as to whether the report's recommendations would comply with his tax and spending rules. He told the Institute of Directors that reforms must be "sustainable, fair and affordable".
However, Friday's Financial Times carried more extensive leaks of the Lord Turner's findings, showing that the state system can be improved with little extra money from taxpayers' .
But he concedes that between 2020 and 2045 a rise in public spending is unavoidable as life expectancy goes up, while fertility and private saving declines.
A broader split appears to concern the very basis of the state pension, with Brown favouring targeted means testing for the poorest, and Lord Turner favouring a more generous state scheme for all linked to earnings.
The prime minister came to Brown's aid by saying that any settlement has to be "fair to the taxpayer".
Criticism
But Michael Howard criticised the chancellor for intervening in the pensions debate ahead of the publication of Lord Turner's landmark report.
"What Gordon Brown has done is attempt to sabotage this report before it is even published," the Tory leader told Radio 4 on Friday.
"We are told Lord Turner is livid. I'm not surprised he is livid. This is no way of going about things.
The government is in total disarray. This is their commission - they set it up.
"We should allow Lord Turner to present his report and then debate his findings in a proper and constructive way - a way that will aim for consensus, but that is not Gordon Brown's way of doing things."
He said there is an emerging consensus on pensions but that: "The only man out of step is Gordon Brown."
