Updated

The University of East Anglia says it will investigate whether scientists at its prestigious Climate Research Unit fudged data on global warming.

Thousands of pieces of correspondence leaked to the Internet late last month have been seized upon by skeptics of man-made global warming as proof that scientists conspired to hide evidence that global warming was not as strong as generally believed.

The university says it will look through e-mails to see "whether there is any evidence of the manipulation or suppression of data."

The university has previously promised a probe, but didn't specify what the investigation would encompass. Thursday's announcement was the first acknowledgment that the data itself would be examined.

The investigation will also examine the organization's data security arrangements.