London: Weapons expert David Kelly, whose death has plunged Prime Minister Tony Blair's government deeper into controversy over the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq, apparently killed himself by slashing his left wrist, the British police said on July 19.

Confirming that the body found on July 18 was that of Kelly, suspected to be the source behind BBC's report that the Blair government had "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons capabilities, police said the post-mortem revealed he died because of a cut to his left wrist.

"The cause of death was haemorrhaging from a wound to his left wrist. The injury is consistent with having been caused by a bladed object," acting superintendent David Purnell of Thames Valley Police said.

"We have recovered a knife and an open packet of coprocamol tablets at the scene. Whilst our inquiries are continuing, there is no indication at this stage of any other party being involved," he said.

Faced with intense criticism, Blair, who is currently on a visit to Japan and has ordered an independent judicial inquiry into the incident, said, "We should make our judgement after we get our facts."

He maintained a stony silence when asked at a press conference if he had "blood on his hands".

The government announced that the judicial inquiry would be headed by a Law Lord, Lord Hutton, and is expected to take a matter of weeks before it presented its report.

Officials said the inquiry would not be the wide-ranging investigation into the run-up to the war urged by some Opposition MPs.

PTI