The foreign affairs select committee meets today to deliberate on whether Downing Street "sexed up" a dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Number 10 yesterday refused to "back down one inch" in its dispute with the BBC.

The prime minister's spokesman said: "It's not a question of us declaring a truce or backing down one inch. Essentially it seems pointless to us to have further exchanges with people who are prepared to defend a story they can't substantiate and which we know to be untrue."

But it emerged that the corporation is holding out the prospect of an olive branch - by conceding its source may not have been entirely correct - providing the government accepts that its story was legitimate given the concerns at the time.