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The Guardian recently admitted it was wrong to have claimed Tesco avoided paying up to £1bn in corporation tax, but the two sides are still on course to clash in court. It now claims that Tesco set up schemes to avoid another tax, Stamp Duty Land Tax.

A seven-page letter penned by Tesco's solicitor Carter Ruck slams the newspaper for publishing a single paragraph correction on page 38 and in the same issue in which further allegations concerning Tesco and its avoidance of stamp duty land tax appeared.

"The one paragraph 'correction and clarification' [is] utterly eclipsed and debased by the surrounding articles, including the disgracefully self-serving and misleading editorial on the same page.

"Your clients' behaviour is not just extraordinarily ill-judged but about as disreputable as any supposedly responsible newspaper's and editor's could be."

A spokesman for The Guardian responded: "We are surprised that Tesco should write in these terms and treat a legal letter like a press release since they well know our defence is due on Friday. We remain bewildered by the tactics of one of Britain's largest companies."

Tesco commenced its legal action in early April with a claim for libel and malicious falsehood against The Guardian and its editor Alan Rusbridger, following the newspaper's allegations in February.

The battle has led to Carolyn McCall, the chief executive of Guardian News & Media, giving up her non-executive directorship of Tesco.

In its apology to Tesco, The Guardian said: "In Tesco's £1bn tax avoiding plan -- move to the Cayman Islands, and every little bit helps: tax-free pot of gold at end of Tesco's rainbow (pages 1 and 27, February 27), and a related editorial and podcast, we reported that Tesco had only paid UK corporation tax on 0.1% of the profits from the sale of its properties in two transactions, 99.9% of the profits accrued to Cayman Island registered companies and that Tesco could avoid up to £1bn in corporation tax if it proceeded with this scheme for the intended disposal of £5bn of its properties.

"This is incorrect. Tesco in fact only parted with a 50% interest in the Red and Aqua partnerships (and therefore the effective sale of 50% interests in the relevant stores) and the profits all arose to UK tax resident companies and have been and will be included in their UK corporation tax returns. We are happy to correct the record and apologise to Tesco. Please see pages 22 and 23 for further details."