BRITAIN: Two British defence officials expressed concern over the way Mr Tony Blair's government presented intelligence on Iraq's military threat in a pre-war dossier, the official inquiry into the death of the weapons expert Dr David Kelly heard yesterday.
Mr Martin Howard, deputy chief of intelligence at the Defence Ministry, told the inquiry in London into Dr Kelly's death that two officials were unhappy with language in Mr Blair's September 2002 dossier on Iraq's weaponry.
"At the time the dossier was produced there was a very wide variety of views," Mr Howard told the first day of Lord Justice Hutton's inquiry into Dr Kelly's death. "Two individuals expressed concern about some language [in the dossier]."
Dr Kelly, a government biologist, committed suicide last month after being named as the source for a news report that said the government manipulated intelligence reports to justify war in Iraq.
Judge Hutton's inquiry into the suicide has become a vital political test for Mr Blair, whose public support has been eroded by the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction (WMD) since Saddam Hussein was overthrown.
The Prime Minister is due to return from holiday in the Caribbean to testify, and the fate of some of his senior officials hangs on the outcome of the inquiry's findings.
Mr Howard said two members of the ministry's Defence Intelligence Staff were worried by claims that intelligence "showed", rather than "indicated" or "suggested", that Saddam was determined to possess WMD.
His comments appeared to confirm media reports of concern in some parts of Britain's intelligence community over the use of the dossier to justify war.
But neither Mr Howard nor any of the three other civil servants who gave evidence yesterday supported claims made by a BBC reporter that the dossier was "sexed up" on the instruction of Mr Blair's communications chief, Mr Alastair Campbell.
Britain's political elite was rocked when Dr Kelly killed himself after being identified as the source of a BBC report that said the government had exaggerated the threat of Iraq's banned weapons.
A survey published on Sunday showed 41 per cent blamed the government for Dr Kelly's death and 68 per cent believed the government was dishonest.
Mr Blair's official spokesman was forced to apologise unreservedly last week for comparing Dr Kelly - described by his former UN chief, Mr Richard Butler, as a man "welded to the truth" - to the fictional fantasist Walter Mitty.
Yesterday Mr Terence Taylor, a former colleague of Dr Kelly's on the Unscom weapons inspection missions to Iraq, gave a robust defence of the scientist's record.
"He was recognised internationally. He had a very high standing, not only in the UK but in the United States and other countries," Mr Taylor told the opening session of the inquiry. "And rightly so. His work was quite remarkable."
Mr Taylor said Dr Kelly's expertise, tenacity and resolve under pressure had forced Iraq to admit in 1995 to a biological warfare programme that it had previously denied having.
Government documents presented to the inquiry described him as the leading British expert on all aspects of Middle East chemical and biological proliferation.