Downing Street authorised a "substantial rewrite" of the British government's Iraqiweapons dossier in the run-up to its publication, according to evidencepresented today to the inquiry into the death of the scientist Dr DavidKelly.
Documents released to the inquiry showed that it was decided that the dossiershould be restructured "as per TB's discussion" - an apparent reference toPrime Minister Mr Tony Blair.
The inquiry, headed by Lord Hutton, also heard how Mr Blair himself chairedcrisis talks in No 10 after it emerged that Dr Kelly could be the source of aBBC story claiming the dossier had been "sexed up" to strengthen the case forwar.
The prime minister made clear that he believed that Dr Kelly should giveevidence in public to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.
The inquiry saw further documents which showed that Downing Street officialssaw themselves as being locked in a "game of chicken" with the BBC in whichthe corporation needed to be forced to back down.
The inquiry is investigating how Dr Kelly apparently came to take his own lifeafter being identified as the source of the BBC's story.
A key claim in the BBC story was that the dossier was "transformed" in theweek before its publication on September 24 at the behest of Downing Streetcommunications chief Mr Alastair Campbell.
The inquiry was shown an e-mail from Mr Campbell to the No 10 chief of staffMr Jonathan Powell, dated September 5th, disclosing that the dossier was beingsubstantially rewritten.
It said: "Re dossier, substantial rewrite with JS and Julian M in charge,which JS will take to US next Friday, and be in shape Monday thereafter.Structure as per TB's discussion. Agreement that there has to be realintelligence material in their presentation."
JS apparently referred to Mr John Scarlett, the chairman of the JointIntelligence Committee, while Mr Julian Miller was the chief of the assessmentstaff at Cabinet Office.
The inquiry has already heard that it was after that the controversial claimthat some Iraqi weapons could be deployed within 45 minutes was included in thedossier for the first time in a draft dated September 10th or 11th.
The inquiry also saw an e-mail from Mr Powell to Mr Scarlett, dated September17th, acknowledging that there was no evidence in the dossier of any "imminentthreat" from Iraq.
"The dossier is good and convincing for those who are prepared to beconvinced," he noted.
"The document does nothing to demonstrate a threat, let alone an imminentthreat from Saddam .... We will need to to make it clear in launching thedocument that we do not claim that we have evidence that he is an imminentthreat."
The inquiry was expected to take further evidence on the drafting of thedossier when Mr Campbell appears before the inquiry to give evidence tomorrow.
PA