The death of Dr David Kelly has continued to dominate the prime minister's tour of the Far East.

The apparent suicide of the government scientist and the war in Iraq topped the agenda at a question and answer session in the Chinese capital, Beijing.

The grilling came after Tony Blair told a group of students not to hold back from difficult questions on any subject.

He was pressed on how he could regain the trust of British people after the tragedy, what his feelings were when he heard of the news of Kelly's death and whether he had lied over Iraq.

"Can you tell us frankly what was your feeling when you heard the news of the death on the way to Japan? How do you get through this and regain people's trust?" one Tsinghua University student asked.

A reticent Blair replied that it would be insensitive to comment before Dr Kelly's funeral and the judicial inquest into his death had taken place.

"This is a desperately sad time for the family of Dr Kelly and his funeral's not been held yet and I don't want to say more about that situation except to say there will be a proper independent inquiry into what happened," he said.

He was then asked whether this was the toughest time of his political career and if the lack of "hard evidence" on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq led him to regret going to war.

Blair said he had "no doubt at all" that Saddam Hussein was developing deadly weapons.

"There's a group of people in Iraq now who are looking both at the programmes and the weapons themselves and the evidence of the weapons and the evidence of the programmes," he said.

"I have to say no, I don't regret it. I believe no matter how difficult it was, that it was that right thing to do and I say that not simply in terms of the security of the world but in terms of the suffering of the Iraqi people."

Blair was attempting to put domestic issues behind him as he embarked on the latest stage of his Far East tour.

In the second stage of his trip to China, the prime minister travelled to Shanghai where he pushed British trade interests.

His focus in Beijing was on raising concerns with President Hu Jintao and the country's premier Wen Jiabao over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

China is the country's closest ally and Blair hopes its leaders will be able to bring pressure to bear on its leaders.

After his round of meetings on Monday, the prime minister was keen to accentuate the positive aspects of his trip, highlighting not only Britain's burgeoning trade links but also improving government relations.

"I think the discussions we have just had were an indication of just how open and frank we are able to be across a range of issues," he said.

"The relationship between Britain and China has strengthened enormously over these past few years.

"I have got no doubt at all it will continue to strengthen still further both in the economic field and also in the political field as well where we are working together to solve some of the critical issues that face our world."

Blair said it was important that Britain secured relations in the region in order to avoid missing out on vital trade.

"The possibilities here are absolutely enormous. The Chinese market is going to be a huge opportunity," he said

The Chinese leadership also gave a positive assessment of the visit.

"Politically our two countries worked to realise the handover of power in Hong Kong and we have established a comprehensive partnership," said Wen Jiabao.

Blair is now heading to Hong Kong before returning to the UK on Thursday.