The BBC has a tape recording of scientist David Kelly in which he claimed that the government was desperate for information and had exaggerated the significance of the assertion that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction (WMD) within 45 minutes, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday.

The recording was made by BBC science editor of Newsnight, Susan Watts, when she interviewed Kelly for a report which made similar claims to those of BBC defense reporter Andrew Gilligan, whose report on May 29 has caused bitter row between the BBC and Downing Street afterwards.

Although the tape backs up Watt's report and much of Gilligan's hotly contested story a few days earlier, it is understood that it does not contain any reference to the involvement of Alastair Campbell, British Prime Minister Tony Blair's senior aide.

The BBC is expected to submit the tape as part of its evidence to the judicial inquiry led by Lord Hutton into Kelly's death in woods near his Oxfordshire home last Friday.

The weapons expert apparently killed himself after coming under intense scrutiny following BBC reports that Iraqi weapons intelligence had been "sexed up" by the government.

After his death, the BBC confirmed Kelly had been the source for three journalists who had reported concern among the intelligence community.

On Newsnight on June 2 and 4, Watts had quoted an unnamed source at length, as saying the government was "obsessed with finding intelligence on immediate Iraqi threats" and the source was questioning the claim that Iraq could launch WMD within 45 minutes.

"It was a statement that was made and it just got out of all proportion," the source said then.

"They were desperate for information, they were pushing hard for information which could be released. That was one that popped up and it was seized on and it's unfortunate that it was," said the source.

"That's why there is the argument between the intelligence services and the Cabinet Office/No 10 -- because they picked up on it and once they've picked up on it, you can't pull it back from them," the source was quoted.

The Guardian says the tape's existence explains the corporation's determination to stick by its story, under the onslaught of criticism from government figures.

Kelly's death was thought to have plunged Blair into the most serious crisis since he came to power in 1997.

(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2003)