Hutton Inquiry 'will not be televised'

The Hutton Inquiry's hearings into the death of Iraq weapons expert Dr David Kelly will not be broadcast on television or radio, it has been announced.

The secretary to the inquiry, Lee Hughes, said the inquiry - sitting in public - would take place in Courtroom 73 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

He said that transcripts of all evidence given by witnesses, expected to include Prime Minister Tony Blair and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, will be available to the media and the public "almost immediately".

On Thursday Mr Hoon refused to respond to questions asking him whether he would resign in the wake of the apparent suicide of Dr Kelly, after it was widely reported that he was the minister who sanctioned the release of the scientist's name.

Dr Kelly was found dead in Oxfordshire last Friday. The BBC has since disclosed that he was the source for its reports claiming that the government had "sexed up" a dossier on the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Blair's director of communications Alastair Campbell has come under increasing scrutiny for his role in preparing the dossier.

BBC political editor Andrew Marr says that Mr Campbell has told the prime minister he plans to resign, but this has been dismissed by Downing Street as "wishful thinking".

No date yet

Mr Hughes said that it was "still too soon to give a date for the inquiry's first public sitting" because a date for Dr Kelly's funeral has yet to be confirmed.

Earlier the Commons foreign affairs committee "reluctantly" decided not to release a transcript of evidence given in a private session by the BBC's Andrew Gilligan.

Andrew Gilligan is a BBC defence correspondent

Mr Gilligan, the Radio 4 Today programme's defence correspondent, was branded an "unsatisfactory" witness by MPs as they conducted their inquiry into the way the case for war was presented.

Mr Gilligan meanwhile described the meeting as "an ambush" conducted by a "hanging jury."

Committee chairman Donald Anderson said he had received a letter from Mr Gilligan requesting the transcript be kept private, although he added it would be made available to the Hutton Inquiry.

Main source

The defence correspondent's appearance before the MPs came at about the same time last Thursday as Dr Kelly was last seen alive.

Dr Kelly's body was found on Friday in woods near his Oxfordshire home.

The MPs are believed to have pressed Mr Gilligan on who his source was for the report about the dossier.

The Foreign Affairs Committee announcement came after Mr Blair returned to the UK from his Far East tour on Wednesday night.

Blair returns

Mr Blair returned to headlines claiming that the government downplayed Dr Kelly's importance as the source of BBC reports about Iraq's weapons.

On Wednesday Mr Hoon visited Dr Kelly's widow in Southmoor, Oxfordshire.

The MoD declined to comment on the purpose of the meeting but did confirm it was arranged at the request of Dr Kelly's widow Janice.

Geoff Hoon visited Dr Kelly's family on Wednesday

After Dr Kelly's identity was made public he was quizzed about whether he was the BBC's mole in a televised session with the Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry into the decision to go to war with Iraq.

Dr Kelly told the MPs that he did not think he was the main source for the original BBC report, claiming that a dossier outlining the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction had been "sexed up" to improve the case for war.

The Daily Telegraph on Thursday claimed that Downing Street had underplayed Dr Kelly's role in the dossier on Iraq's weapons.

It said that while Downing Street had said the scientist was involved in writing historical accounts of Iraq's weapons programme, he had compiled an assessment of Saddam Hussein's weapons and methods of concealing them.

It emerged on Wednesday that the BBC has a tape of Dr Kelly expressing concern about the way Iraq weapons intelligence was presented, it has emerged.

The BBC is expected to submit the tape as part of its evidence to the Hutton Inquiry.