Kelly inquiry to keep heat on Blair

Britain's inquiry into the suicide of an Iraq weapons expert, which plunged Prime Minister Tony Blair into the worst crisis of his six-year rule, will put his credibility in the spotlight when it opens on Monday.

Top judge Lord Hutton is investigating the death of scientist David Kelly who killed himself after being drawn into a furious row over Blair's case for toppling Saddam Hussein.

Lord Hutton's inquiry, which is likely to last for months, has also emerged as a test of Mr Blair's leadership.

"You could say he holds the fate of the government in his hands," said Vernon Bogdanor, professor of government at Oxford University.

Kelly, a bio-warfare expert and a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, was identified as the source of a BBC report that Mr Blair's government "sexed up" an intelligence dossier on the threat of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.

The failure to find any such weapons in Iraq, four months after Saddam's defeat, undermined public support for Mr Blair.

But the death three weeks ago of a respected expert who reportedly cast doubt on the government's case for toppling Saddam, and was then dragged into the limelight when he was named by the government as the BBC's anonymous source, sent the prime minister's trust ratings into freefall. An opinion poll on Tuesday showed that 52 per cent of Britons trusted Mr Blair very little or not at all.

His official spokesman was forced to apologise unreservedly this week for comparing Kelly - described by his former UN chief Richard Butler as a man "welded to the truth" - to the fictional fantasist Walter Mitty.

Mr Blair, currently on holiday at a British pop star's villa in Barbados, has been summoned to appear before the inquiry.

Among Lord Hutton's early witnesses will be BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan, who reported in May that a pre-war intelligence dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction was spiced up at the last minute after pressure from Blair's officials.

Mr Gilligan made the claim one week after meeting Kelly at a London hotel. His BBC bosses, who initially said Mr Gilligan's story came from a senior intelligence source, last month confirmed Kelly was the source of the report.

Mr Gilligan will have to explain why Kelly told the committee he did not recognise his words in the BBC report.

Lord Hutton will also hear evidence next week from Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office officials.

He has said he wants to find out how Kelly's name was made public after he told his superiors that he had met Mr Gilligan to discuss Iraq.

His first witness will be another former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, Terence Taylor, who will be asked to describe Kelly's expertise in chemical and biological warfare.