Key players get early copies of Hutton's report on Kelly

Blair and other key parties involved -- including the BBC, Kelly's family and the government -- were being given advance copies at midday Tuesday, allowing them 24 hours to digest and interpret its conclusions.

Hutton, a former Northern Ireland chief justice, has gone out of his way to avert leaks, obliging the recipients of advance copies to sign statements promising not to divulge the contents.

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Security was reportedly tight around the print works in south London where the report was produced, with employees being searched on their way out. The Sun newspaper said the document would run to 600 pages.

Attention will focus Wednesday on what Hutton has to say about Blair's role in the decision to expose Kelly as the source of a BBC radio report in May which alleged that a September 2002 dossier on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction had been "sexed up" by top Downing Street aides.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was threatened with a devastating political defeat in a vote on university tuition fees yesterday, just a day before a potentially damning report from a judicial inquiry into the suicide of weapons expert David Kelly.

Faced with a rebellion by backbench Labour MPs, Blair's inner circle warned that a parliamentary vote against a tripling of tuition fees in England and Wales would throw the future of his government into doubt.