Blair returns to spotlight

Tony Blair was driven to Chequers to prepare for a tough week ahead

Tony Blair is preparing for what could be one of the most important days of his premiership after arriving back in Britain from a holiday in the Caribbean.

The prime minister spent three weeks relaxing on the island of Barbados with wife Cherie and their four children, staying at a £3m villa belonging to singer Sir Cliff Richard.

But he will be thrust back into the media spotlight next week when he gives evidence at the Hutton inquiry into the death of Iraq weapons expert Dr David Kelly.

His return to the UK comes as officials prepare to release 9,000 pages of unseen evidence relating to the inquiry.

The documents, which will be published on the inquiry website, are expected to give the public unprecedented access to information about the inner workings of government.

Dr Kelly apparently took his own life after being named as the source of a BBC report which claimed the government had "sexed up" its dossier on the threat posed by Iraq.

Kelly told of death in the woods

On Thursday, the inquiry took a new twist when it heard how the scientist had told a UK diplomat in February that he would probably be "found dead in the woods" if the UK invaded Iraq.

David Broucher, the UK's permanent representative on the disarmament conference in Geneva, said the scientist had made what he regarded at the time as a "throwaway remark".

It was only when he heard that Dr Kelly had been found dead in Oxfordshire woodland last month that Mr Broucher thought the comment might have been more significant.

Mr Blair will take the stand next Thursday, a day after Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, who faces tough questions about his role in the naming of Dr Kelly.

Mr Blair has already given evidence about the September dossier to the parliamentary intelligence and security committee.

But this will be the first time he has faced such formal questioning in public, as the committee sat in private.

Iraq issue

Listed to appear on the same day as Mr Blair are BBC chairman Gavyn Davies and Tom Mangold, a journalist and friend of Dr Kelly.

Another matter demanding Mr Blair's attention on his return to Downing Street will be the volatile situation in Iraq.

There have been fresh calls for more troops to be sent in following continued attacks against coalition forces and the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad on Tuesday, which left 23 people dead.

Though such issues may have weighed heavily on the prime minister's mind during his break, fellow passengers on his flight home said he had appeared "relaxed" and in a "casual" mood.

As with their outward journey, the Blairs sat in economy class on the seven-and-a-half hour flight.

'Deserved break'

Livingstone and Janet Prescott, who were on both flights, said the Blairs had "kept themselves to themselves" with only one or two other passengers attempting to talk to them.

Mr Prescott, a 51-year-old builder from east London, said: "I was going to harass him on the way back but in the end I thought I'd better let them have some time to themselves.

"He was on holiday and everybody deserves a break from work."

Mrs Prescott, a 43-year-old council worker, said they had seen the Blair family on a safari trip in Barbados when they had travelled in their own vehicle accompanied by a police escort.