I want to earn as much as can, says BBC's Stephen Nolan

His lucrative £400,000-£449,000 salary makes him one of the best rewarded in the corporation.

He presents seven days a week across Radio 5 Live, Radio Ulster and BBC One Northern Ireland and revealed he had turned down rival offers of more cash for significantly less work.

Nolan said: "I want to work as much as I can, I want to be the best I can be and I want to earn as much as I can."

The list of top BBC earners revealed that Nolan is paid more than a number of well-known broadcasters and presenters, including Radio 4's Today presenter Nick Robinson (£250,000 to £299,000), newsreader and Antiques Roadshow presenter Fiona Bruce (£350,000 to £399,000), and the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg (£200,000 to £249,000).

He was the only Northern Ireland-based BBC broadcaster on the list of those receiving at least £150,000.

Nolan told BBC Radio Foyle: "I am fair game for scrutiny and fair game for conversation."

He said he was doing five radio shows a week on Radio Ulster, three Nolan radio shows on 5 Live, handling the phone-in element of Question Time plus 18 Nolan Live television shows a year.

He added it was for others to decide on pay but said it was a pleasure for him to work at the BBC.

Earlier, the presenter had a public exchange with William Crawley, host of Radio Ulster's Talkback, over his refusal to be interviewed on the show about his pay packet.

Nolan said he would instead be quizzed on his own Radio Ulster morning show on Thursday.

Referring to his higher listener figures, Nolan - who dubs his programme "The biggest show in the country" - said he would rather his answers were broadcast to the widest audience possible.

On Wednesday morning, Crawley tweeted: "Stephen Nolan has turned down an invitation from @BBCTalkback to be interviewed on today's programme about BBC salaries."

Nolan referred to the tweet during his Radio Ulster show, telling his listeners: "What I actually said to William is, I think it is really important for the maximum amount of people to have a chance to listen to someone interviewing me, and I think it is therefore important not to go on the smaller phone-in show but to go on the show which has the bigger audience."

In response, Crawley tweeted: "I well understand that @StephenNolan would prefer to manage a story about himself on his own show rather than face me in an interview today."

Nolan said he was inviting an "independent" interviewer to ask the questions on Thursday to ensure he was fully scrutinised and also promised to field callers' questions on his salary.

"I will be as accountable to all of you as we do every other day with other people," he said.

Nolan holds the record for winning the most Sony Radio Academy Golds, with seven to his name, and is the current Radio Academy Speech Broadcaster of the Year.

He is also a two-time recipient of the Nick Clarke Award and has won Royal Television Society awards two years in a row for his television work.