BBC apology sought as Campbell cleared

BRITISH Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has demanded an apology from the BBC after Alastair Campbell and the rest of the British Government were cleared of political interference in the Iraq dossier row.

The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said yesterday there was no evidence that Government communications director Mr Campbell had inserted a claim in the first dossier published last September that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction were deployable in 45 minutes. They also said there was no evidence of any "politically-inspired meddling".

In May, the BBC reported a senior intelligence source as saying that Downing Street had inserted the 45-minute claim against the wishes of the intelligence agencies, knowing it probably to be wrong.