TONY Blair faced calls to resign last night over the death of David Kelly, the defence official at the centre of the Iraq dossier row.

The tragic twist in the government's battle with the BBC overshadowed the prime minister's latest diplomatic tour. Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith wrote to Blair demanding the recall of parliament.

Kelly, a 59-year-old weapons expert, bled to death after apparently slashing his wrist at a beauty spot close to his Oxfordshire home.

Friends blamed the strain of being named as the probable source of BBC accusations that Alastair Campbell "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq.

Campbell was accused of inserting a claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes into a dossier on Iraq against the wishes of intelligence chiefs.

Kelly was hauled before two parliamentary committees investigating the claim in the days before his death.

The scientist had been named in a leaked letter from defence secretary Geoff Hoon after admitting he briefed BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan.

However, under intense questioning from MPs, Kelly insisted he was not the source for the key allegation against Mr Campbell.

Two days later, on Thursday afternoon, he went out for a walk and never returned. His body was found the following morning.

His wife, Janice, told a friend he was "very, very stressed and unhappy about what had happened and this was really not the kind of world he wanted to live in." The prime minister immediately announced an independent judicial inquiry into events leading up to the death.

Speaking in Japan today, Blair expressed "deep sorrow" for the tragedy but refused to discuss the government's part in it.

Looking tired and drawn he repeatedly called for "respect and restraint" ahead of the inquiry's report.

But the event closed with a journalist shouting: "Have you got blood on your hands prime minister? Are you going to resign?" Back in Britain, former Labour minister Glenda Jackson urged Blair to do just that, saying: "Bullets should be bitten." I don't see how the government is going to be able to function adequately. This is going to be hanging over the government for the whole period of the judicial inquiry, " she said.

"Ministers are responsible for actions and the actions that were engaged in by No 10, in my opinion, a clear political case must be answered by those who are ultimately responsible." Duncan Smith called for a broader tribunal, that would also examine government handling of intelligence, to be set up.

"The two issues are inseparable, " the Conservative leader said. That would involve recalling MPs from their summer break which began on Thursday, the day Dr Kelly went missing.