British prime minister Mr Tony Blair's embattled defence minister and outgoing media aide face tough cross-examination tomorrow in the final week of a judicial inquiry which has cast doubt on the country's case for war in Iraq.
Defence secretary Mr Geoff Hoon and government communications director Mr Alastair Campbell, who announced his resignation last month, will be quizzed about a pre-war Iraqi weapons dossier and their handling of a scientist who questioned its central claim.
The inquiry into the suicide of weapons expert Dr David Kelly has already wreaked political damage on Mr Blair. Dr Kelly slashed his wrist after his unauthorised meeting with a BBC reporter triggered a row between government and public broadcaster.
Last week Mr Blair's Labour Party lost its first parliamentary by-election in 15 years, a stinging setback which reflected the collapse of public trust triggered by revelations at Lord Hutton's inquiry into Kelly's death.
Intelligence chiefs have conceded to Hutton that a warning in Mr Blair's September 2002 dossier that Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction at 45 minutes' notice was based only on information about short-range and relatively small-scale battlefield munitions. That intelligence came from a single source, quoting an Iraqi military officer.
To overcome anti-war sentiment within Labour, Mr Blair based his case for joining the US invasion of Iraq on the "serious and current threat" from Baghdad. But five months after the war no chemical or biological weapons have been found in Iraq.