LONDON: The BBC dug in its heels and refused on Thursday to bow to demands by British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s “sultan of spin” to apologize for its reporting on the Iraq war and weapons of mass destruction.

Blair’s powerful director of communications, Alastair Campbell, took the world’s biggest and best-known public broadcaster to task on Wednesday when he appeared before a parliamentary committee.

He told the House of Commons foreign affairs committee that there was no truth to a BBC radio report, quoting an unnamed source, that Downing Street embellished a September 2002 dossier on Iraq to beef up the case for war.

“In relation to the BBC story: it is a lie, it was a lie, it’s a lie that’s continually repeated and until we get an apology for it I will continue making sure people know it’s a lie,” Campbell said.

But, speaking on BBC radio Thursday, the network’s director of news Richard Sambrook snapped back at Campbell for “seriously misrepresenting” BBC journalism.

“He said we had accused him and the prime minister of lying. That’s not true. We haven’t,” Sambrook said.

“He said we accused the prime minister of misleading the Commons. We have never said any such thing. He said we were trying to suggest the prime minister had led the country into war on a false basis. We’ve never suggested that,” he said.

“He said the BBC had an anti-war agenda. That’s untrue, we have no agenda. Finally he said we’ve not apologised. Well, that is true — because we have nothing to apologize for.”

Sambrook spoke on the Today programme, the early-morning soap box of Britain’s political class, whose defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan had originally reported the allegation about the September dossier.

It was made by an unidentified individual close to the intelligence community who, Sambrook said, was “a senior, credible and reliable source.”

According to the BBC, a one-sentence claim in the 50-page dossier — that Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons within just 45 minutes — was inserted under political pressure from Downing Street.

Many assumed that pressure came straight from Campbell, a former tabloid political reporter with no shortage of enemies among politicians and journalists who resent the power he wields behind the scenes.

As Blair’s media strategist, and first official spokesman, the 46-year-old Campbell is nicknamed “the sultan of spin” for his presumed ability to manipulate the news media.

Gilligan, who like many BBC star reporters also writes for non-BBC print media, stood by his story when he appeared before the foreign affairs committee last week.

It is looking into the decisions that led to Britain’s participation in the Iraq war. On Friday it will hear from Foreign Secretary Jack Straw for the second time this week, but behind closed doors.—AFP