LONDON (Reuters) - The BBC has a tape of talks between one of its reporters and the weapons expert who was apparently driven to suicide by a row over the government's case for war in Iraq, BBC sources said on Wednesday.
The tape records a conversation between reporter Susan Watts and Dr David Kelly, who was found dead last week after he was named as the BBC's source for stories alleging the government exaggerated its case for war against Iraq.
A BBC spokeswoman refused to confirm or deny reports of the tape. The BBC, Prime Minister Tony Blair, and many of his top ministers and advisers have come under fierce attack in the row over Kelly's death.
Kelly, a government scientist and weapons expert, was found dead in woods near his home last Friday. He had bled to death from a slashed wrist.
He had been forced into the media spotlight after telling his Defense Ministry bosses he may have been the source behind a BBC report which claimed Blair's government had exaggerated intelligence about banned Iraqi weapons to make a case for war.
The BBC, which had consistently refused to name its source, only confirmed Kelly as the source on Sunday, after the scientist's death.
The tape is likely to form a key part of evidence presented to Lord Hutton, the man asked by Blair to conduct an inquiry into events leading up to Kelly's death.
Susan Watts, science editor for the BBC's Newsnight program, used Kelly as her source for reports on June 2 and June 4 which claimed the government had exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq to justify going to war.
Watts quoted the source as saying the government was "obsessed with finding intelligence on immediate Iraqi threats."
"They were desperate for information, they were pushing hard for information which could be released," she quoted the source as saying.