An investigation will be carried out into how a controversial memo about a meeting between Nicola Sturgeon and the French ambassador was leaked.
A Daily Telegraph report claims a leaked UK government memorandum - likely from the Foreign Office - sets out an account of a meeting between the SNP leader and the French ambassador to the UK Sylvie Bermann.
It claims she told the ambassador she would rather see David Cameron than Ed Miliband as PM after the election, a claim she strongly denies.
Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood has ordered a leak inquiry to see how the memo reached the newspaper.
Ms Sturgeon had earlier said: "The bigger question and one I am raising with the head of the civil service is who wrote this memo since the Foreign Office seem to be denying all knowledge of it.
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"How did it come to contain such an inaccuracy and how did it get into the hands of the Tory-supporting Daily Telegraph?"
The memo was written by a British civil servant after a conversation with France's consul general in Edinburgh, Pierre-Alain Coffinier, who was present.
But speaking to Sky News on Saturday, Mr Coffinier said that no preference for Prime Minister was discussed at the meeting in February.
:: Six Questions About The Nicola Sturgeon Memo
"At no stage did anyone comment on their preference regarding the elections."
The memo reportedly said: "Discussion appears to have focused mainly on the political situation, with the (First Minister) stating that she wouldn't want a formal coalition with Labour; that the SNP would almost certainly have a large number of seats ... that she'd rather see David Cameron remain as PM."
It added that Ms Sturgeon said the Labour leader was not "prime minister material".
The final line of the memo, however, read: "I have to admit that I'm not sure that the FM's tongue would be quite so loose on that kind of thing in a meeting like that, so it might well be a case of something being lost in translation."
Mr Miliband said: "I think these are damning revelations.
"What it shows is that while in public the SNP are saying they don't want to see a Conservative government in private they're actually saying they do want a Conservative government.
"It shows that the answer at this General Election is that if you want the Conservatives out the only answer is to vote Labour for a Labour government."
Sky's political correspondent Anushka Asthana said: "The fact that Nicola Sturgeon has 'categorically' denied that she expressed a prime ministerial preference during a private conversation with the French ambassador will do little to stem the political fallout from this story.
"After all, the very suggestion of a conversation could be political gold-dust for Labour, whose national electoral hopes hinge on how well the SNP perform in Scotland."
Meanwhile, campaigning continues into Easter with Labour unveiling a plan to build 125,000 homes by creating a £5bn housebuilding fund.
The Tories, meanwhile, are unveiling a pledge to force pornography websites to use effective age-verification tools to keep out under-18s.
Ms Sturgeon is due to join the annual Scrap Trident group march in Glasgow, only a short distance from the Faslane home of nuclear-armed submarines.
The latest Survation/Mirror poll puts Mr Miliband ahead of Mr Cameron, with 33% and 31% of the vote respectively.
UKIP polled at 18%, the Liberal Democrats 9%, the SNP 5% and Greens 3%.
These results are markedly different from a YouGov/The Sun poll which was published on Thursday night.
It suggested that the Conservative Party had hit a three-year high - with 37% of those questioned stating they would vote Tory if the General Election was tomorrow.
Labour was on 35%, the Lib Dems on 7%, UKIP on 12% and the Greens on 5%.
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