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Brit ish Prime Minister Tony Blair, back home yesterday following a gruelling four-nation tour, was hurled straight into a political storm caused by the presumed suicide of an arms expert at the centre of claims Britain "sexed-up" its case for war on Iraq.

Blair arrived in London late Wednesday after a 12-hour flight from Hong Kong following a week-long whistle-stop tour of the US, Japan, South Korea and China.

The Prime Minister had cut short his visit to Hong Kong by one day to escape typhoon "Imbudo", that was headed towards the territory.

Downing Street said they had no information regarding Blair's engagements as the prime minister prepared to try and draw a line under his biggest crisis since coming to power in 1997.

Blair has faced calls to resign and seen his popularity plummet in opinion polls following the apparent suicide of weapons expert David Kelly last Friday.

Following Kelly's death, the BBC said that the arms expert had been the main source for its report in May that said Blair's office "sexed-up" a dossier on Iraq in the run-up to war against the wishes of intelligence chiefs.

The row centres on a headline-grabbing claim in the September dossier that Baghdad could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.

The parliamentary inquiry into the claims backtracked yesterday and decided to reluctantly withhold key evidence given by the BBC journalist who first published the allegations.

The House of Commons foreign affairs committee had said it would publish evidence given in private by Andrew Gilligan before the end of the week, but has since received a plea from the journalist not to make the information public.

"The committee has reluctantly decided not to publish the transcript of Gilligan's evidence of 17th July, at the present time," committee chairman Donald Anderson said in a press release.

Anderson said that he had also received a letter from BBC chairperson Gavyn Davies, which would remain confidential.

The full transcript of Gilligan's private evidence would be publicised as soon as possible and will be made available to a separate inquiry being led by Lord Brian Hutton into the circumstances surrounding Kelly's death, Anderson said.

Kelly's body was discovered last Friday in woods close to London as Blair was en-route to Tokyo from Washington. The government followed up confirmation of his death by announcing a full independent judicial inquiry into the affair.

Kelly, a defence ministry consultant, was found with his wrist slashed, days after he was grilled by a parliamentary committee investigating claims in the media that he had been the BBC's main source.

Among the first people Blair was expected to meet following his return to Britain was Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, said by the Financial Times to have personally authorised a media strategy that led to Kelly being named as the source.

The business daily said in a report published earlier this week that Hoon's direct involvement meant he could be forced to resign if the independent inquiry criticised the way the government treated the scientist.

Meanwhile a YouGov survey released Monday revealed that 39% of British voters would like Blair to quit over the affair.

Blair promised during his tour of Asia to "cooperate fully" with the judicial investigation into Kelly's death as he denied being responsible for "outing" the arms expert.

Both London and Washington had claimed the war on Iraq in March was justified by Saddam Hussein's refusal to give up weapons of mass destruction but four months on, no convincing proof has yet been uncovered that Baghdad had such weapons. – Sapa-AFP.

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