Downing Street spindoctor Mr Alastair Campbell wanted to expose Dr David Kelly as the BBC's source as he thought it would undermine the story, the Hutton Inquiry has been told.
Extracts from the outgoing No 10 communication's chief's secret diary show that he believed that making the scientist's name public was "the biggest thing".
In a further extract, he said that he had been assured by the Ministry of Defence that weapons expert Dr Kelly had been "well-schooled" before he gave evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mr Campbell, in his second appearance before the inquiry, said he had been "very, very angry and frustrated" about BBC journalist Mr Andrew Gilligan's report which claimed that he had "sexed up" the Iraq dossier to strengthen the case for war.
However he said that his idea of leaking Dr Kelly's details to a newspaper had been firmly quashed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and he had not gone through with it.
Earlier, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said that he had personally approved the plan for the MoD press office to confirm Dr Kelly's identity to any journalist who came up with the right name.
The inquiry also heard that Mr Campbell had failed to tell MPs on the FAC that he had suggested altering the wording on the controversial claim in the dossier that some Iraqi chemical and biological weapons could be deployed in 45 minutes.
In his diary, Mr Campbell recorded how Mr Hoon informed him on July 4th that an official had come forward to say that he had had an unauthorised meeting with Mr Gilligan but had denied making the claims in his report.
It reads: "Says that he'd come forward and he was saying yes to speak to AG, yes he said intel went in late, but he never said the other stuff. It was double-edged but GH (Geoff Hoon) and I agreed it would f*** Gilligan if that was his source," he wrote.
The diary contains repeated references to the fact that both he and Mr Hoon had been pressing for Dr Kelly's details to be made public.
PA