Papers consider No 10 e-mails

Lord Hutton's inquiry is a theatre with many stages, decides The Times as it picks through another day of evidence.

On its front page it admits that e-mails sent by some of Tony Blair's closest aides have threatened to blow a hole in Downing Street's insistence that it had not "sexed up" the September Iraq weapons dossier.

But in its leader column it argues that the messages have embarrassed rather than undermined ministers.

The Times decides not to place great significance on the e-mail that it believes will excite much of the media - the one from Tony Blair's official spokesman, Tom Kelly, suggesting the government and the BBC were involved in a game of "chicken".

Instead it focuses on the implications of the message from the prime minister's chief of staff a week before the dossier was published.

Jonathan Powell writes that the document includes "nothing to demonstrate a threat, let alone an imminent threat" from Saddam Hussein.

'Rolls Royce brain'

The Times says some will regard this e-mail as an implicit instruction to the intelligence services to produce more exciting material but it argues that the charge is yet to be proved.

The Guardian comments that Jonathan Powell's remarks urging caution contrast with the "chilling" language used by Tony Blair when he published the document a week later, describing Iraq's weapons programme as "active, detailed and growing".

The Daily Mirror goes further, arguing that the disclosure of Jonathan Powell's e-mail bolsters the claim made by the BBC Radio 4 Today programme's defence correspondent, Andrew Gilligan, that the document was "sexed up" before publication.

The Sun is more interested in the evidence of Sir David Manning, Tony Blair's foreign policy adviser at the time, who told the inquiry that Andrew Gilligan's report was a direct attack on the integrity of the prime minister.

His evidence is described in turn by The Sun as a devastating attack on the BBC's original report.

The paper assures its readers that Sir David is a pillar of probity with a "Rolls Royce brain".

And it adds that Alastair Campbell's evidence to Lord Hutton on Tuesday will "tell us who's winning".

Missing Islamists

Among the other stories to make the front pages, The Financial Times reports that increasing numbers of Saudi Arabian Islamists are flooding to Iraq to prepare for a holy war against American and British forces.

A UK-based Saudi dissident, Saad al-Fagui, tells the paper that the Saudi authorities are worried that up to 3,000 Saudi men have gone "missing" in two months, although it is not clear how many have crossed into Iraq.

The Daily Mail and The Daily Express are concerned with identity fraud.

A Mail reporter claims that for £1,300 she bought a new identity "with shocking ease".

The Express reports that identity theft is soaring because of an insatiable demand for forged documents from criminals and illegal immigrants.

Time, please

The Daily Telegraph spares a thought for pub landlords in the Irish Republic who now face hefty fines if they allow drunkenness on their premises.

The paper asks how a landlord can decide if his customers are drunk, short of breathalysing them before they place their orders?

It says a good landlord will keep his customers under control - whether they are tipsy or not.