Setting out the scope of his inquiry as it opened in London, Lord Brian Hutton said Blair would be summoned "at some stage".

So too, he said, would Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon, Blair's close aide and powerful media strategist Alastair Campbell, and BBC board of governors chairman Gavyn Davies.

"I should emphasise this is an inquiry to be conducted by me," said Hutton, a former chief justice in Northern Ireland, who launched the inquiry with a moment's silence for Kelly.

"This is not a trial conducted between interested parties who have conflicting cases to advance. I do not sit to decide between conflicting cases. I sit to investigate the circumstances surrounding Dr Kelly's death."

Kelly, whose body was found July 18 in woods near his home with a slit wrist, had been identified by the government as the source of of BBC report claiming that Blair's government had "sexed up" a September 2002 dossier on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction.

Vigorous denials from Downing Street of the report escalated into a heated row between the government and the public broadcaster.

With Kelly's funeral to be held next Wednesday, Hutton -- who has already met the scientist's widow -- said his inquiry would resume on August 11 at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London.