LONDON - A dispute between Britain's biggest broadcaster and Prime Minister Tony Blair over the government's use of intelligence information in making the case for war in Iraq has turned personal - and nasty.

Blair's combative communications chief is accusing a British Broadcasting Corp. reporter of lying, and neither side is backing down.

But as relations between the publicly funded broadcaster and the government slump, a far more potentially damaging issue hangs over Blair's No. 10 Downing Street office: Where are the weapons of mass destruction that were Britain's reason for going to war?

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was defensive Friday as he testified before a House of Commons committee probing the veracity of intelligence dossiers published by the government.

"Nobody in the intelligence community disagreed that Saddam Hussein had the capability for biological and chemical weapons programs," Straw said. "I hope we find further corroborative evidence about Saddam's chemical and biological capabilities and his nuclear plans, but whether or not we do, the decision to take military action was justified."

Blair faces growing political pressure because coalition forces in Iraq have failed to find evidence of such banned weapons.

The government also is accused of exaggerating the scale of the Iraqi weapons threat to convince skeptical lawmakers of the necessity of war - claims stemming from a report by BBC defense correspondent Andrew Gilligan last month.

Gilligan said Blair aides redrafted an intelligence dossier to include claims that Hussein could launch chemical and biological weapons at 45 minutes' notice.

Intelligence officials, Gilligan said, were unhappy with the redrafted report and believed that the information about the 45-minute notice came from a single, unreliable source and was incorrect.

Gilligan's story, which cited an unidentified intelligence official, infuriated the government, which is demanding an apology.

Gilligan's allegations, Straw told the Foreign Affairs Committee, were "all simple and straightforward falsehoods."

"Nobody 'sexed up' or exaggerated the September dossier. No one at all," said the exasperated foreign secretary.

Blair's director of communications, Alastair Campbell, also has lambasted the report.

"Until the BBC acknowledge that is a lie, I will keep banging on ... and they better issue an apology pretty quick," Campbell said.

The BBC has refused to back down.

Richard Sambrook, director of BBC News, wrote a nine-page letter to Campbell on Friday refusing to apologize and accusing Campbell of a "personal vendetta" against Gilligan.

"It is our firm view that No. 10 [Downing Street] tried to intimidate the BBC in its reporting of events leading up to the war and during the course of the war itself," he wrote.

Some lawmakers say they suspect that the ferocity of the government's attack on the BBC is a tactic to divert attention away from the issue of weapons of mass destruction.

"Codswallop," Blair's official spokesman said Friday, dismissing such suggestions as nonsense.

The dispute is dominating the headlines in Britain, and not only because of the damaging accusations leveled at the government.

The BBC is envied - and disliked - by competitors, who are jealous of its public support from annual license fees paid by every home with a television set, and there is a certain glee in reports of the feud.

Journalists were surprised Thursday when Blair bypassed the BBC reporter at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Traditionally, the BBC is invited to ask the first question.

But newspapers have shown a grudging respect for the BBC's bullish response in standing up to the government.