Key questions for Lord Hutton

Lord Hutton is heading the inquiry

What are the key questions that Lord Hutton will be tackling during his inquiry into the death of weapons expert David Kelly?

BBC News Online here looks at four areas likely to be examined, and provides a summary of what is currently known.

Was Dr Kelly reported accurately?

The BBC says Dr David Kelly spoke to three of its journalists: Andrew Gilligan of Radio 4's Today programme, Susan Watts of Newsnight and Gavin Hewitt, who reported his meeting on BBC One's 10 O'Clock News.

Ms Watts reported that her source had told her that the claim that Iraq could launch weapons in 45 minutes had "got out of all proportion" and that there was "desperation" for new information on Iraq's weapons.

Mr Hewitt reported that he had been told by his source that material had been put in and taken out of the dossier on Iraq's weapons published last September. He said the source had concluded that "some spin had come into play" over the dossier.

Mr Gilligan's report went further than those of Ms Watts and Mr Hewitt, suggesting that a claim about Iraq being able to deploy chemical and biological weapons in 45 minutes was inserted into a dossier about Iraq by Downing Street.

Mr Gilligan said his source had told him that the government probably knew the 45 minute figure was wrong.

He went further in an article for the Mail on Sunday, saying his source had said the dossier had been transformed by Tony Blair's communications chief, Alastair Campbell.

Dr Kelly told MPs on the Commons foreign affairs committee that he couldn't remember if he had mentioned Mr Campbell in his meeting with Mr Gilligan, but said the comments didn't "sound like the sort of thing I would say".

He also told MPs that he had not spoken to Gavin Hewitt. It has since emerged that he had.

He said he had no doubts about the veracity of the dossier on Iraq.

Did the BBC misrepresent the nature of its source?

Critics of the BBC say the corporation misrepresented the nature of its source.

Andrew Gilligan told MPs his source "was one of the senior British officials in charge of drawing up the dossier".

The BBC has since acknowledged that on two occasions in live interviews, Dr Kelly was referred to mistakenly as an intelligence services source.

On 26 June, as the row between the BBC and the government blew up over the reports, the BBC's director of news, Richard Sambrook, described its source as "an intelligence services source".

Jeremy Paxman, interviewing junior minister Ben Bradshaw on Newsnight in June, referred to Susan Watts' source as different from Mr Gilligan's and from the intelligence services.

The government said Dr Kelly - later revealed as the source for the BBC stories - was an expert on weapons of mass destruction but not part of the intelligence services.

It said it gave details of Dr Kelly in order to show that he was not part of the intelligence services.

Dr Kelly told MPs he had written "an historical account of the UNSCOM inspections and providing input into Iraq's concealment and deception" for the September dossier.

He said he was not involved in compiling the dossier.

Why did Dr Kelly's name emerge?

A key question is how Dr Kelly's name was revealed.

How did Dr Kelly's name emerge?

On 8 July, the Ministry of Defence announced that an official had come forward to say he had had a discussion with Mr Gilligan.

It said he was an expert in weapons of mass destruction at the MoD who had advised ministers.

It said he was not part of the intelligence services or the defence intelligence staff.

The MoD statement did not name Dr Kelly.

On 9 July, Tony Blair's spokesman clarified the official's position. He said the man was a technical expert who had worked for a variety of departments but said his salary was not paid by the MoD.

Dr Kelly was subsequently named by newspapers as the official in question.

Newspaper journalists have since said that they were told by the MoD press office on 9 July that any names put to them would be confirmed or denied.

According to reports, this strategy was approved by Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.

However, another report says Mr Hoon was opposed to the plan, but was over-ruled by Downing Street.

The Guardian says it put three names to the MoD press office. Two were rejected as the possible source of the BBC story, but the third - that of Dr Kelly - was confirmed.

Another newspaper says it arrived at Dr Kelly's name by putting those details of the possible source given by the MoD and Downing Street into an internet search engine.

The MoD has said it will not comment on the claims ahead of Lord Hutton's inquiry on the affair.

Tony Blair has denied that he sanctioned the naming of Dr Kelly.

What was Dr Kelly's role with Iraq dossier?

When the Ministry of Defence said an official had come forward to say he had met Andrew Gilligan, it gave a description of the official - now known to be Dr Kelly.

The MoD statement said the official was "an expert on WMD (weapons of mass destruction) who has advised ministers on WMD and whose contribution to the dossier of September 2002 was to contribute towards drafts of historical accounts of UN inspections".

Mr Gilligan had described his source as "one of the senior officials in charge of drawing up the dossier".

The MoD statement said this did not fit the description of Dr Kelly. It added that the official was "not a member of the Intelligence Services or the Defence Intelligence Staff".

The following day, Downing Street gave more details of the official.

Tony Blair's spokesman said he was "a technical expert who had worked for a number of government departments, including the MoD where he was currently working, although his salary was paid by another department".

Giving evidence to MPs, Dr Kelly, having been named as the official in question, said he had contributed an historical account of Iraq's weapons to the dossier.

He told the MPs he had not played a part in compiling the dossier.

But according to a Daily Telegraph report on 24 July, Dr Kelly wrote the assessment of which weapons and weapons-making equipment Iraq was hiding and how it was being concealed.

The report said he was "inextricably involved" in analysis of secret intelligence on Iraq.