British Prime Minister Tony Blair will be on holiday on Monday when an inquiry begins into an arms expert's suspected suicide that puts his leadership over Iraq under scrutiny and could affect his re-election chances.

A temporary name plate stands in floral tributes on the grave of weapons expert David Kelly in the graveyard of St. Mary's Church in Longworth, Oxfordshire, August 10, 2003. An inquiry into the circumstances of Kelly's death, to be led by senior British judge Lord Hutton, will start in London on Monday. Kelly, whose body was found on July 18, committed suicide after being exposed as the source of claims that the government exaggerated the case for waging war on Iraq.  [Reuters]

A senior British judge, Lord Hutton, is investigating the death of David Kelly, found with a wrist slit last month after being sucked into a public row between the government and the BBC on whether Blair exaggerated the case for war against Iraq.

Kelly, a former UN weapons inspector who worked for the Defense Ministry, was identified as the source of a BBC report that the government "sexed up" an intelligence dossier which said Saddam Hussein posed a major threat with weapons of mass destruction.

Blair, on holiday with his family at a British pop star's villa in Barbados, is among government ministers and officials who have been summoned to appear before Hutton's inquiry, which is likely to last for months.

The government's handling of the affair before and after Kelly's death has triggered a sharp drop in public support for Blair, who first came to power in 1997 and won a second general election in 2001.

A YouGov survey published by the Mail on Sunday newspaper showed 41 percent of Britons blamed the government for Kelly's death and 68 percent believed the government was dishonest.

Opposition politicians say the findings of the inquiry could become a key factor for Blair and his Labour Party in the next general election, due by mid-2006.

The Kelly affair has kept attention on the failure by Blair and President Bush so far to produce any evidence of the weapons of mass destruction that they gave as their main reason for going to war to topple Saddam.

BBC UNDER SCRUTINY TOO

The 59-year-old expert on bio-warfare was found dead just days after he was called in front of a parliamentary committee investigating whether the threat posed by Saddam had been exaggerated.

Blair's official spokesman Tom Kelly was forced to apologize unreservedly last week for comparing David Kelly -- described by his former U.N. chief Richard Butler as a man "welded to the truth" -- to the fictional fantasist Walter Mitty.

"The attempt by Tom Kelly to cheapen the record of Dr Kelly off the record, even before his funeral had taken place, was appalling," Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said at the weekend. "Surely it is Blair who must apologize."

Among Hutton's early witnesses will be BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan, who reported in May that a pre-war intelligence dossier on Iraq was spiced up at the last minute after pressure from Blair's officials.

Gilligan filed his report one week after meeting Kelly at a London hotel. His BBC bosses, who initially said Gilligan's story came from a senior intelligence source, confirmed last month that Kelly was the source of the report.

Gilligan will be questioned on why Kelly told the committee he did not recognize his words in the BBC report.

Hutton has said he wants to find out how Kelly's name was made public after he told his superiors that he had met Gilligan to discuss Iraq.

His first witness will be another former UN weapons inspector, Terence Taylor, who will be asked to describe Kelly's expertise in chemical and biological warfare.

Close

Today's Top News		Top International News
+The next great leap after Shenzhou V ( 2003-10-21) +Hu calls for balanced development ( 2003-10-21) +Report: SARS not airborne virus ( 2003-10-21) +Japan urged to resolve weapons issue ( 2003-10-21) +Int'l AIDS group opens Beijing office ( 2003-10-21)		+US hopes Iraq fund will attract donors ( 2003-10-21) +Bolivia ex-president vows to return ( 2003-10-21) +UN report: US war on terror radicalizes Arabs ( 2003-10-21) +Israel raids in Gaza kill 10, wound 100 ( 2003-10-21) +EU ministers arrive in Iran for nuclear talks ( 2003-10-21)