Pressure builds on Blair

Just five days before Blair was due to testify, the independent judicial inquiry into arms expert David Kelly's death published Saturday thousands of pages of private e-mails and memoranda from, among others, the prime minister's closest aides.

The 9,000 pages of documentation shed new light on Blair's role in the affair, suggesting that he was involved in naming Kelly as the source of BBC allegations that the government "sexed up" a dossier on Iraqi weapons.

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A confidential note of a series of meetings held in the prime minister's office revealed that Blair supported "making public that a source had come forward", but left the specifics of the "naming strategy" to the defence ministry.

Evidence published by the inquiry -- led by senior judge Brian Hutton -- showed that Blair wanted Kelly to be properly briefed on what to say before he was made to appear in public before a parliamentary committee.

If further proof were needed of the depth of the crisis facing Blair, an ICM survey for The Sunday Telegraph newspaper showed that 67 percent of those polled felt they had been deceived by him over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

A third, 33 percent, said the prime minister should quit.

Kelly, a government expert on biological weapons and a former UN arms inspector in Iraq, was found dead with a slit wrist on July 18, three days after being publicly grilled by lawmakers over whether he was the BBC's source.

Kelly also testified privately before a second parliamentary inquiry.

"Tried PM (Blair) out on Kelly (appearing) before" the parliamentary committees, said an e-mail released Saturday from Downing Street chief-of-staff Jonathan Powell, one of Blair's top aides.

"He (Blair) thought he (Kelly) probably had to do both but need to be properly prepared beforehand," said the e-mail, which was dated July 10.

Blair will give evidence before the inquiry on Thursday, the day after Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon -- Kelly's ultimate boss -- who came out of the ICM poll worst with 52 percent saying he should stand down.

During the first two weeks the inquiry heard that Hoon had over-ruled misgivings from his most senior civil servant to order Kelly to face the public examination.

BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan alleged in a British newspaper article on June 1 that Blair's office was responsible for inserting a headline claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes into a government dossier published in September 2002.