Number 10 has denied claims that it is calling a truce with the BBC following a month long dispute over the Iraq dossier.

Downing Street has signalled that it is to halt discussions with corporation chiefs until two parliamentary committee's release their findings.

But a spokesman for the prime minister denied that Alastair Campbell is capitulating in the face of intense media pressure.

"This is not a question of us declaring a truce or backing down one inch," said Downing Street.

"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."

The row between Campbell and the BBC continued over the weekend after the journalist at the centre of the controversy threatened legal action against a government minister.

Accusations continued to fly despite Campbell's bid to secure an apology from the corporation.

The government's PR chief has accused Today programme reporter Andrew Gilligan of lying in reports about the basis and credibility of the Iraq dossier.

But Gilligan hit back, claiming government minister Phil Woolas defamed him during a TV interview last week.

He is said to be considering taking legal action against the minister, who said the journalist misled MPs when he appeared before the foreign affairs committee.

Reports suggest Campbell has given evidence to MPs which confirms that intelligence existed claiming that Iraq could have mobilised weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.

Ministers are hopeful that the Commons foreign affairs committee, which grilled Campbell last week, will issue a report siding with his account of events.

Health secretary John Reid took to the TV studios on Sunday in a bid to take the sting out of the affair.

As MPs called for Campbell to resign, Reid insisted the BBC should now withdraw the allegations.

"It is a month to the day since the first allegations were broadcast by the BBC," said Reid.

"There is only one question and that is, are they true? They were very specific. They were very serious.

"They said the prime minister and his staff put information in to the public domain they knew to be wrong, they did it against the wishes of the intelligence services in this country and they did it to dupe the people of this country.

"This is completely untrue. They have been denied by all the heads of the intelligence services as well as the Prime Minster and what we need from the BBC is a simple statement.

"Do they believe these allegations to be true? If they say 'well now, actually we are reporting them but we don't ourselves believe them to be true' fine. There is a line drawn.

"If they keep doing what they are doing then a decision will eventually be made by one of the select committees."

But Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat party chairman, said there were deeper questions still unanswered.

"The spat between Alastair Campbell and the BBC is a sideshow," he said.

"Only when the prime minister accounts for his actions in public will people feel that we have got to the bottom of the questions surrounding the war on Iraq."