BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies on Wednesday strongly defended the disputed report by BBC reporter Andrew Gillian claiming the Downing Street had embellished last September's dossier with the line Saddam could deploy banned weapons within 45 minutes.

He told the inquiry into the death of arms expert David Kelly, who was Gillian's source, that the BBC governors would not have backed the corporation's management during the Iraq dossier row "for the sake of it."

He and BBC's board of governors accepted their responsibility in the handling of the Kelly spat with the government and will stand up for BBC independence, said Davies.

"Right or wrong on the 45 minutes," he said, "we must not buckle to government pressure."

"We were faced with such an unprecedented attack on our integrity," he said.

Davies also admitted the BBC governors had misgivings about its handling of the row with the government.

"The governors did suggest that management had committed some failings in the previous several weeks," he said.

But "this was by no means a blanket endorsement of everything management had done," he noted.

Kelly apparently committed suicide after his name was leaked to the public as the BBC report's source, sparking a political storm onto Britain.

Wednesday is the last of 22 days of oral evidence to Lord Hutton's independent inquiry into Kelly's death.

In a separate development, it has emerged that British Prime Minister Tony Blair will face a fresh investigation into the workings of his government and the Downing Street press operation, according to a BBC report.

After Lord Hutton issues his final report, the Commons Public Administration committee will look at its wider implications for management and leadership across Whitehall, said the report.
 
(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2003)