Downing Street communications chief Mr Alastair Campbell today acknowledged thathe had seen Dr David Kelly as the key to resolving the British government's bitterbattle with the BBC over the Iraq weapons dossier.
Mr Campbell told the inquiry into the scientist's death that he had believedDr Kelly could prove that a BBC report claiming the government "sexed up" thedossier was false.
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Weapons expert David Kelly whose death led to the inquiry
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However he strongly denied that he had been responsible for leaking his nameto the press.
The inquiry, headed by Lord Hutton, was set up to investigate how weaponsexpert Dr Kelly apparently came to take his own life after being identified asthe source of the report by BBC journalist Mr Andrew Gilligan on May 29th.
In his keenly awaited appearance before the inquiry, Mr Campbell denied he hadbeen responsible for inserting into the dossier a controversial claim that someIraqi weapons could be deployed within 45 minutes.
He insisted that the dossier had been the work of Mr John Scarlett, chairman ofthe Joint Intelligence Committee, although he admitted that he had advised on"presentational" issues.
However much of the questioning by counsel to the inquiry Mr James Dingemans QCfocused on how Dr Kelly was handled by ministers and senior officials after headmitted having had an unauthorised meeting with Mr Gilligan.
Mr Campbell repeatedly spoke of his anger and frustration at the continuingrefusal of the BBC to accept that its story was wrong.
He said that when Defence Secretary Mr Geoff Hoon told him on July 4th that DrKelly had come forward, he immediately thought that the scientist could enablethem finally to prove the story was untrue.
"I felt that if this person was the source, then it probably was the only wayin which we were going to be able to establish the truth, namely that theallegations of May 29th were false," he said.