London: A bitter row between the British Government and the BBC exploded back into life today (Feb 1, 2004) as the BBC's outgoing head accused the Government of trying regularly to "intimidate" the State-funded broadcaster.

Throughout the Iraq war, Prime Minister Tony Blair's then-information chief Alastair Campbell would fire off repeated written "rants" complaining about the BBC's news coverage, former director general Greg Dyke said.

"What Alastair Campbell was clearly trying to do was intimidate the BBC so that we reported what he wanted us to report as opposed to what we wanted to report," an angry Dyke said in an interview on BBC television.

Dyke resigned on Jan 29 following the publication of an official report into the suicide of Government weapons expert David Kelly, which criticised the BBC while almost totally exonerating the Government.

An inquiry into Kelly's death led by judge Lord Brian Hutton and published on Jan 28, pronounced the allegations "unfounded", leading to both Dyke and the BBC's chairman, Gavyn Davies, stepping down.

However in a bitter riposte today, Dyke complained that Hutton had failed to take into account the sheer volume of complaints the BBC received from Campbell, who stepped down as Blair's chief spin doctor for personal reasons last year.

"We were inundated with complaints from Alastair Campbell," Dyke said.

"This was a man who wrote to us an awful lot."

Earlier today Dyke published a personal letter he had sent to Blair last year complaining that Downing Street had often complained about stories which were subsequently found to be accurate.