From his new home in New York, Salman Rushdie yesterday lashed out at his British critics with greater bitterness and venom than ever before, claiming that some journalists would have preferred it if he had been killed.

"They begrudge the fact that I have survived the fatwa and now lead a better life," he told the German news magazine, Der Spiegel.

His outburst came in an interview in which he also claimed that the cost of guarding him from the wrath of the Iranian ayatollahs was "far less" than the £11m often quoted.

In fact, said Rushdie, his police protection had cost less than the income tax he had paid during the period he was in hiding. "It turns out that, in the end, the British state still made a profit out of me," he was quoted as saying.

Rushdie failed to name any of his detractors, preferring to cast his anger against the general breed of "hatchet journalists". Last night columnists who have been criticial of the author in the past responded to his claims by accusing him of over reaction.

The Daily Mail's Peter McKay, who has suggested that the novelist would not have earned so much money without the fatwa, said: "He's perfectly entitled to have a bash at newspapers but it's slightly over the top. Newspapers build people up before knocking them down - but they do that with everyone when they realise they're not quite as good as they thought."

The Standard's AN Wilson also ridiculed Rushdie's attack. "I haven't seen any piece by a journalist saying they wished he was killed, have you? He wrote a very bad novel recently and got some bad reviews, but actually I think the British press rallied behind him because, however conceited and ungenial he is, imposing fatwas is one thing you can't do."

Rushdie spent nine years in 30 safe houses in Britain after the Iranian religious authorities condemned him to death for alleged blasphemy. The death sentence and the £1.5m bounty on his head were lifted in 1998.

In its interview, Der Spiegelasked Rushdie about the interest that British gossip writers had shown in his private life in New York. "The few people who push this view all meet up in the same half a dozen places, like drinking together and have made up their minds that I am an arrogant bastard. Let them. If you look at the world's press, they're pretty much alone in their view," he replied.

"Unfortunately, the British press is going through a rather nasty phase. Their conception of journalism consists above all in setting up targets and then knocking them down with all their might. No doubt, these hatchet journalists are upset that I wasn't killed".

The author of The Satanic Verses also disclosed that he had been on the verge of moving to the United States when the fatwa was issued in 1989.

"I wanted to find a home for myself here at the end of the eighties," he told Der Spiegel. "But for reasons that are only too well known I had to leave it be. New York and I, we had a pending appointment".