British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday ruled out recalling parliament following the apparent suicide of former UN weapons inspector David Kelly, as Conservative opposition leader Iain Duncan Smith had demanded hours before.
Recalling parliament, on holiday since Thursday, "would generate more heat than light. I don't think it would be appropriate," Blair said in an interview with Sky News.
"I think we should have a period of reflection and a period in which the judge can carry out the inquiry, and also allow the family time to grieve," Blair said from the Japanese spa of Hakone, where he was stopping over during an Asian tour.
The government Saturday called for an "urgent" inquiry into the circumstances leading up to the apparent suicide of Kelly.
Kelly had been fingered as the unnamed intelligence official who had told BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan in May that Downing Street had "sexed up" a September 2002 dossier on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction in order to strengthen the case for going to war against Saddam Hussein.
However, before a parliamentary committee last Tuesday, Kelly denied he was the main source of the story. Two days later he disappeared from his home, and the next day, as Blair was en route to Tokyo from Washington, Kelly was found dead in woods near his home in Oxfordshire.
On Saturday, Police confirmed that Kelly had apparently bled to death after slashing one of his wrists. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
