Straw defends Campbell role

Ministers admitted for the first time today that a crucial claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction ready to be fired within 45 minutes was inserted into a key government dossier weeks before it was published. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told MPs that the allegation - from an intelligence source - was not in the first draft of the dossier detailing the threat from Iraqi weapons.

He said the intelligence was put into the dossier as soon as it was received and processed - and was not inserted or exaggerated by Downing Street's communications chief, Alastair Campbell.

The news emerged amid the continuing row between the BBC and Downing Street over claims by the corporation that No 10 had ordered the "sexing up" of the dossier, including the insertion of the 45-minute line.

Under close and at times angry questioning, the Foreign Secretary told the Commons all-party foreign affairs select committee that the first draft of the document had been prepared in spring last year but that a decision to publish it was not taken until early September.

Mr Straw's senior officials told MPs that the information about Saddam's readiness to fire weapons within 45 minutes had been obtained on 9 September from a single intelligence source. It was then processed, inserted into a draft and appeared in the final published version of the document on 24 September.

The first time Mr Campbell saw a draft of the dossier, the 45-minute claim was included, Mr Straw said.

He also disclosed that Mr Campbell was preparing a detailed letter to the committee spelling out his involvement in the dossier and answering questions put to him when he appeared before them on Wednesday.

The fresh exchanges came as an opinion poll revealed the row has allowed the Tories to take the lead for the first time since the fuel protests in September 2000.

It said two-thirds of voters regard the Government as "dishonest" and put the Tories on 37per cent, two points higher than Labour.