After confirming that a body found Friday west of London had been formally identified as that of defence official David Kelly, a Thames Valley police spokesman said there was no evidence anyone else was involved.

"A post-mortem has revealed that the cause of death was haemhoragging from a wound to his left wrist," said Acting Superintendent David Purnell said.

"The injury is consistent with having been caused by a bladed object.

"We have recovered a knife and an open packet of co-proxamol (eds: correct spelling) tablets at the scene. Whilst our inquiries are continuing there is no indication at this stage of any other party being involved."

Co-proxamol is a prescription-only painkiller used in one in 20 suicides in Britain, according to the British Medical Journal.

Kelly, 59, was a Ministry of Defence consultant on biological weapons and former UN arms inspector in Iraq.

His body was found in a wooded area near his home in Oxfordshire on Friday, a day after he was reported missing by his family.

His disappearance came two days after he denied being the source of a BBC report that a February dossier on weapons of mass destruction, which was used to justified the war in Iraq, had been "sexed up" by British government officials.

Friends have said the civil servant had been under intense pressure after being grilled on Tuesday by a parliamentary committee examining the row between the government and the BBC, which broadcast its report at the end of May.

Kelly had admitted giving off the record briefings to Andrew Gilligan, the defence correspondent whose report triggered the controversy.

But both he and the BBC have denied he was the source for the claim that the threat posed by Iraq had been exaggerated, notably with the insertion of a claim that Baghdad was capable of unleashing chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction at 45 minutes notice.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, currently in Japan, has promised a judicial inquiry into Kelly's death but refused to comment further on the issue pending its outcome.

The apparent suicide has plunged the British leader into the worst crisis of his six years in power and he appeared visibly strained and emotional during an appearance at a press conference in Japan earlier on Saturday.

He did not respond to a reporter who bluntly asked if he had "blood on his hands" and might resign.

Instead, he stared silently out across the room for several tense seconds and then with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at his side, left the room.

Blair had earlier called on the press to await the outcome of the inquiry.

"I don't think it's right for anyone, ourselves or anybody else, to make a judgement until we have the facts," Blair said.

The row over the BBC report has increased the pressure on Blair over the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq more than three months after the end of the war.

British newspapers on Saturday accused Blair of using Kelly as a scapegoat and a diversion from this issue.

"Death of the dossier fall guy" was the page-one headline of the Daily Telegraph, while the Daily Mail attacked the government's treatment of Kelly under the headline "Proud of yourselves?"

The Financial Times termed the death "an immense blow" to the government and there was growing speculation that the affair could lead to the resignation of Alastair Campbell, Blair's director of communications and one of his closest aides.

WAR.WIRE