The prime minister, on a tour of East Asia, said he was ready to appear before a judicial inquiry into the apparent suicide Friday of British defence ministry weapons expert David Kelly.

The BBC confirmed for the first time Sunday that Kelly, a former UN arms inspector, was the main source of its report in May that the government had embellished evidence on Iraq's weapons capabilities.

But despite the growing furore over the part played by the government in Kelly's death, Blair said that he intended to stay in office, and rejected demands to recall parliament from its summer recess.

"Absolutely," the prime minister said when asked in a Sky News television interview whether he intended to carry on.

Blair said he thought recalling parliament would "generate more heat than light".

"I don't think it would be appropriate," he said, looking rested and recovered after the initial shock of Kelly's death.

"We need a period of reflection and a period in which the judge that's been given the task of carrying out the inquiry can carry out the inquiry, and also allow the family the time to grieve."

Blair later told a joint press conference with South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun in Seoul that he would appear before the hearing.

"Of course there are things I will talk about to the inquiry, as will others," Blair said when asked whether he was disclosing all he knew about the affair.

Lord Hutton has been picked to head the independent judicial inquiry into the suicide of Kelly, 59, a microbiologist by training and expert on biological warfare.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence, Paul Sykes, said that the probe would start as "soon as possible" and would "probably take weeks rather than months," though the timing would be decided by Lord Hutton.

While the government has taken most of the flak for Kelly's death, which dominated British news at the weekend, the BBC has also come under fire for its role.

The national broadcaster confirmed in a statement that Kelly was the anonymous source of its May news report -- hotly denied by Blair's office -- that a key dossier last September on Iraq had exaggerated the threat of Saddam Hussein's arsenal.

"Over the past few weeks we have been at pains to protect Dr Kelly being identified as the source of these reports," the BBC said.

"We clearly owed him a duty of confidentiality. Following his death, we now believe, in order to end the continuing speculation, it is important to release this information as swiftly as possible," it added.

Kelly, a Ministry of Defence consultant on biological weapons, bled to death after apparently slashing his own wrist, police said Saturday.

He had denied being the main source for the disupted BBC story, but admitted briefing Andrew Gilligan, the BBC defence correspondent whose report triggered the bitter row with the government.

Blair, in a statement prior to leaving Seoul for Beijing, the next stop on his Asian tour, welcomed the BBC's naming of Kelly as its source and called for "respect and restraint, no recriminations, with the Kelly family uppermost in our minds."

But the crisis continued to dog the prime minister, even in Seoul where earlier a handful of South Korean anti-war protestors had gathered to protest the prime minister's visit.

"Who killed David Kelly," read one banner, carrying a photograph of the arms expert, outside the city's Roman Catholic cathedral where Blair attended Sunday services with his Catholic wife Cherie.

More South Korean anti-war demonstrators denounced Blair for the Iraq conflict and also for backing the US hard line on North Korea.

North Korea has ejected nuclear weapons monitors and pulled out of the nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty in a nine-month standoff over its nuclear weapons drive.

Recently the rogue state claimed it had reprocessed spent nuclear fuel rods to make enough weapons-grade plutonium for six nuclear bombs.

burs/dr/mkh

WAR.WIRE