BRITAIN: Mr Tony Blair's director of communications, Mr Alastair Campbell, was last night accused of waging a "personal vendetta" against a journalist who suggested he "sexed up" intelligence reports to justify war with Iraq.
In a strongly worded letter, BBC news chief Mr Richard Sambrook said the corporation stood by Andrew Gilligan and his report.
Mr Sambrook was replying to a series of written questions about the BBC story from Mr Campbell.
Gilligan, who is defence correspondent of Radio 4's Today programme, had said secret service staff were unhappy about the way their work was presented in a Downing Street dossier.
And he quoted a source saying a claim that Saddam Hussein could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes was inserted at the last minute.
Mr Campbell yesterday demanded an apology from the BBC, saying the reports were simply not true.
But Mr Sambrook said under the circumstances it had been right to publicly put the source's claims to the Government. "I do not accept the validity of your attacks on our journalism and on Andrew Gilligan in particular," he wrote.
"We have to believe that you are conducting a personal vendetta against a particular journalist whose reports on a number of occasions have caused you discomfort."
The letter was released after the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, defended the inclusion of the 45-minute claim in the dossier.
Ministers have admitted it was based on a single intelligence report.
However, Mr Straw told MPs investigating Downing Street's handling of intelligence reports it had been "credible".