With the University of East Anglia's administrators working out a way to launch an independent inquiry into the infamous incident of leaked documents of its Climatic Research Unit, the director of the unit, Phil Jones - whose correspondence was hacked - temporarily stepped down on Tuesday.

The emails and documents that were leaked to the Internet late last month included pieces of correspondence between some of the world's leading climate scientists.

Skeptics of man-made global warming said that the leaked documents clearly prove that scientists have been meddling with global warming data, thereby conniving to hide evidence which indicates that global warming is not as grave an issue as it has been made out to be.

Announcing the independent inquiry decision on Thursday, East Anglia said that the probe will be headed by former civil servant Muir Russell, who does not have any link with "either the university or the climate science community."

The university said that the review is most likely to be completed by spring next year, and that the investigations will largely ascertain whether scientists have misrepresented the facts, as the man-made global warming skeptics claim.

Elaborating about the proceeding to come, the university said its review will examine the leaked correspondence "to determine whether there is any evidence of the manipulation or suppression of data which is at odds with acceptable scientific practice."