Hutton demands inquiry into report leaking

Lord Hutton has ordered "an urgent investigation" into the leaking of his findings about the death of Dr David Kelly to the Sunnewspaper.

The newspaper carried extracts of the report's main conclusions yesterday morning, hours before it was formally released by Lord Hutton in the afternoon.

Downing Street strongly denied it was responsible for leaking the report, which was largely supportive of its stance on Iraq and exonerated the British government over the suicide of Dr Kelly.

A spokesman for the Hutton Inquiry said the investigation would include the six parties to the investigation who were given copies of his report 24 hours before publication, its printers and the inquiry team itself.

Prime Minister Tony Blair demanded a fresh apology from the BBC, which was condemned in the Hutton report over mistakes made in reporter Andrew Gilligan's controversial Todayprogramme broadcast last year.

Lord Hutton said Mr Gilligan's main claims that the government had lied about Iraq's weapons capability to justify going to war were "unfounded".

BBC Director General Mr Greg Dyke apologised in a televised broadcast last night. He said he accepted that "certain key allegations" reported by Mr Gilligan on the Todayprogramme on May 29th last year were wrong and said the BBC apologised for them.

But he added: "However, we would point out again that at no stage in the last eight months have we accused the Prime Minister of lying and have said this publicly on several occasions."

BBC chairman  Mr Gavyn Davies resigned last night but also questioned Lord Hutton's conclusions.