UK government pursues overhaul of spin image

British Minister Tony Blair, whose government has been renowned and reviled for its concentration on its image, planned to announce an overhaul of media operations yesterday, government officials said.

The announcement comes less than a week after Alastair Campbell, who has directed Blair's information operation since the government took office in 1997, announced that he was resigning.

Structural to the communications unit he headed are viewed as an effort to repair relations with the British media and bolster public confidence in the government.

Officials on condition of anonymity said the government's plans would be released by the Cabinet Office, and that Blair did not plan an immediate statement.

Campbell be succeeded by the Labour Party's press chief, David Hill, who reportedly will not inherit Campbell's powers to give orders to civil servants.

Blair frequently faced accusations that his Labour Party government is more concerned with presentation of policies than with substance.

"I think the government absolutely knows that it has to kill off the curse of spin once and for all and it is determined to do it and will set in place structures that are designed to achieve that end," said Labour lawmaker Tony Wright, chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee which earlier this year called for a radical review of government communications.

Blair's has been under pressure for months because coalition forces in Iraq have found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction -- the core of Blair's case for military intervention.

The government's claims in an intelligence dossier published in September have been under particular scrutiny at a judicial inquiry into the death of weapons inspector David Kelly.

Kelly been named as the possible source of a BBC report which quoted an unidentified official as saying Blair's office overruled experts in claiming that Iraq was poised to deploy some chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes.

Campbell at the heart of that controversy. The BBC said its source held Campbell responsible for including the disputed claim; Campbell and other government officials have disputed that. Kelly had denied accusing Campbell.

Two ago, the government was embarrassed by the disclosure that one press officer had suggested that the terrorist attacks in the US made Sept. 11 a "good day" to bury bad news.

Government offices are traditionally staffed by civil servants who are expected to communicate government policy in a politically neutral manner.

Blair's increased the number of politically appointed special advisers who are also able to brief on partisan lines.

Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith accused the government of emasculating the civil service and said its "culture of spin and deceit" would only end if Blair resigned.

"Forgive me for being suspicious, but we've seen it all before," Duncan Smith wrote in the Independent on Sunday newspaper.

The overhaul of Blair's media machine is believed to draw heavily on an independent review of government communications, carried out by senior journalists, media specialists and government advisers, and chaired by Bob Phillis, chief executive of the Guardian Media Group.