London, Sept 04: British Prime Minister Tony Blair today said he fully intends to stay in office, as an inquiry into the suicide that triggered his worst-ever crisis adjourned for 10 days.
In his first Downing Street press conference since
the death of David Kelly, Blair refused to field questions
about either the late weapons scientist or the judicial
inquiry into why he took his life.
"Let the judge do the judging," he said, as Lord
Brian Hutton heard from his last batch of witnesses at the
royal courts of justice before adjourning until September 15
to ponder the evidence so far.
Blair acknowledged: "It has been a tough time for
obvious reasons."
But the Prime Minister flagged his intention to stay
in office and forge ahead with a pressing domestic agenda,
saying: "I carry on doing the job because I believe in what
I'm doing."
Kelly's body was found July 18 in woods near his
Oxfordshire home after his employer, the ministry of defense,
exposed him as the source of a May 29 BBC report alleging
that a September 2002 dossier on Iraq and weapons of mass
destruction had been "sexed up" to bolster the case for war
on Saddam Hussein.
In particular, the BBC report suggested that the
dossier's most sensation claim -- that Iraq could deploy
chemical or biological weapons in just 45 minutes -- was
inserted despite reservations in intelligence circles.
Bureau Report
