Dr Kelly had Nobel prize nomination

Scientist David Kelly was so eminent he was nominated for a Nobel peace prize, the Evening Standard has learned.

He was put forward for the honour for exposing Saddam Hussein's covert weapons programme.

The disclosure will fuel claims that Downing Street played down Dr Kelly's importance during its row with the

BBC to discredit him as an authoritative source for allegations that Downing Street "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq.

At the height of the row, before 59-year-old Dr Kelly apparently committed suicide-No 10 dismissed him as a middle-ranking "technical adviser" and insisted: "He was not someone who had access to the intelligence which had been included in the dossier."

However, it now appears that he was not only Britain's preeminent expert on Saddam's chemical and biological arms programme but his work made him intimately connected with the intelligence services.

Dr Kelly received both raw intelligence reports at his desk at the Ministry of

Defence and reports from the Joint Intelligence Committee. He was also consulted by MI6 as an analyst and was adviser to a task force processing intelligence on Iraq.

The revelation of his seniority in the field is a blow to Downing Street's argument that the BBC relied on a source who could not possibly have known whether the dossier was embellished to exaggerate Saddam's capabilities.

Dr Kelly was nominated for the Nobel peace prize in the Nineties when he led a 40-strong UN team and revolutionised the analysis-based techniques for identifying and exposing Iraq's biological weapons programme. The nomination was made by Rolf Ekeus, leader of the UN weapons inspectorate, who felt his work had played a historic contribution to international disarmament.

Mr Ekeus said today: "In my opinion David Kelly and his team should have gained the Nobel Prize.

"Without them the world could never have understood Iraq's biological programme."

Saddam was reputed to have been more keen to expel Dr Kelly than any other weapons inspector because of his ability to winkle out secrets.