Blair wades into BBC feud over Iraq dossier

British Prime Minister Tony Blair blasted the BBC yesterday over a charge that a top aide doctored a dossier on Iraq's weapons, wading into a bitter feud between the government and the public broadcaster.

On the eve of the publication of a parliamentary report on the allegations, Blair dismissed the claim made by the BBC that the aide "sexed up" the dossier to justify war.

"I take it as about as serious an attack on my integrity as there could possibly be," Blair told The Observer newspaper. "The idea that I or anyone else in my position, frankly, would start altering intelligence evidence... is absurd. The charge is untrue and I hope that they will accept that."

The failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - the primary Anglo-American justification for war - has undermined the government's credibility and dented Blair's popularity.

The British Broadcasting Corporation, however, denied it had ever accused Blair of lying, or of misleading parliament.

"We have never accused the prime minister of lying... The real question for the BBC is, were we right to report what we actually said, when we said it? We believe the answer is yes," a BBC spokesperson said.

The BBC, citing an anonymous intelligence source, reported that Alastair Campbell, Blair's communications chief, had inserted a claim into a government dossier on Iraq's armament that its lethal weapons could be fired within 45 minutes.

Governors of the BBC, which is funded by licence fees and established by charter, met later yesterday to examine the issue.

The war of words coincided with a poll in The Mail on Sunday in which 62 per cent of those questioned said they believed Campbell "sexed up" the dossier, versus 19 per cent who thought he had not.

That poll highlights what is becoming a painful thorn in Blair's side: the question of trust.