London ? Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would take full responsibility if an inquiry found the government contributed to the suicide of scientist David Kelly — identified Sunday by the British Broadcasting Corp. as its main source in accusing the government of hyping weapons evidence to justify war in Iraq.

Blair, dogged on his trip through east Asia by angry charges about the Ministry of Defense adviser’s death, said he has no intention of resigning over the dispute, as some critics at home have demanded.

He welcomed the BBC’s announcement, which temporarily shifted the angriest public criticism from his administration to the broadcaster, whose credibility came under attack.

Kelly’s suicide has visibly shaken Blair, who learned of it at the start of an exhausting Asian trip after flying first across the Atlantic to give a speech to the U.S. Congress.

He appeared tense and preoccupied during appearances Saturday in Japan, and his characteristic wide grins were replaced by a withering glare when a reporter shouted: “Have you got blood on your hands, prime minister?”

Blair’s government and the state-funded BBC have been embroiled in a bitter, drawn-out battle over a May 29 radio report by journalist Andrew Gilligan.

The report quoted an anonymous source as saying officials had “sexed up” evidence about Iraqi weapons to justify war and insisted on publishing a claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy some chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes — despite intelligence experts’ doubts.

After Kelly, a quiet, bearded microbiologist with a sterling international reputation, told his Ministry of Defense bosses he’d spoken to Gilligan, the ministry identified him as a possible source for the report.

Kelly was questioned by a parliamentary committee, and just days later, on Friday, police found his body in the woods near his Oxfordshire home. They said bled to death from a slashed left wrist.

“We can confirm that Dr. Kelly was the principal source” for Gilligan’s story, the BBC said in a statement Sunday. “The BBC believes we accurately interpreted and reported the factual information obtained by us during interviews with Dr. Kelly.”