Blair 'called crisis talks over Kelly'

British Prime Minister Tony Blair summoned crisis talks to discuss how the Government should handle the news that David Kelly may have leaked information to the media, the inquiry into the scientist's death heard today.

The inquiry was given an extraordinary insight into the way the Downing Street machine swung into action after Dr Kelly came forward to admit he had had an unauthorised meeting with the BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan.

The inquiry, headed by Lord Hutton, was set up to investigate how Dr Kelly apparently came to take his own life after being identified as the source for Mr Gilligan's story claiming the Government "sexed up" its dossier on Iraqi weapons.

Giving evidence, Downing Street chief of staff Jonathan Powell - one of Mr Blair's closest aides - described how senior officials were summoned to the Prime Minister's office on the morning of Monday July 7.

They included the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, John Scarlett, the Cabinet Office intelligence and security co-ordinator Sir David Omand, and the Ministry of Defence permanent secretary Sir Kevin Tebbit.

They were later joined by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell, who had been at a separate meeting to discuss the report due out that morning by the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Iraq.

The previous week, Dr Kelly had notified his line manager at the MoD that he had met Mr Gilligan, although his account of their discussion did not tally with the journalist's report of his conversation with his source.

Mr Powell said that he had informed Mr Blair of the development on the Thursday night in a phone call to the Prime Minister's hotel room where he was staying during a tour of the North West.

Over the weekend Mr Blair had been kept personally updated on events at his official residence at Chequers.

Officials had discussed whether Dr Kelly would have to give evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee, which already taken evidence from Mr Gilligan.

At that stage the Prime Minister said they needed more information before deciding what course to take, and asked for a "deeper analysis" of the differences between what Mr Gilligan and Dr Kelly were saying.

Mr Powell said that at the meeting on the Monday morning Mr Blair had asked what Dr Kelly's views were on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and what he was likely to say if he went before the committee.

Sir Kevin warned that while Dr Kelly had supported the war as he had no doubt that Saddam Hussein did have weapons of mass destruction, he might have some "uncomfortable" things to say on some specific items.

Mr Powell said that Mr Blair had said that the MoD should continue to handle the case "following whatever internal processes are normal".

Following that meeting, Dr Kelly was summoned back to London from a training day at RAF Honnington for inspectors preparing to travel to Iraq, for a second interview by MoD managers.

Earlier the inquiry heard from the MoD director of news Pam Teare that Sir Kevin had approved the strategy of confirming Dr Kelly's name to journalists after consultations with Number 10.

She said that she had prepared a "question and answer" note for MoD press officers dealing with journalists' inquiries which said that they should confirm the name if the correct name was put to them.

"He (Sir Kevin) actually read the full Q&A and was content with it," she said.

She denied a suggestion by junior counsel to the inquiry Peter Knox that the strategy had been a "charade" designed to ensure that Dr Kelly's name became public.

She said that they had taken that approach - once the MoD had issued a statement saying that an unnamed official had come forward who might be Mr Gilligan's source - so that they could prevent other people being wrongly named.

"We were certainly concerned for Dr Kelly," she said.

While she said that Dr Kelly had been warned that his name was likely to become public, she said that she did not think that he had been told that the MoD press office intended to confirm it to journalists.