The row over the government's September dossier rumbles on

Mr Kaufman told BBC chairman Gavyn Davies and director general Greg Dyke they should sack Andrew Gilligan and other journalists who write what he called "contentious" articles for the newspapers.

Mr Kaufman said Mr Gilligan, along with other BBC journalists like John Simpson, John Humphrys and Andrew Marr, should be given a choice between writing for the press and being impartial commentators on the BBC.

He said that the example was the former editor of Today, Rod Liddle, who was given the choice of keeping his job or writing for the papers.

The BBC's director of news, Richard Sambrook, said Mr Liddle was given the choice of staying or going because his article (on the Countryside March in the Guardian) had not been cleared and "clearly compromised our impartiality".

He said the rules governing contributions to other publications would be "significantly tightened" in future and members of staff would be allowed to write in this way only on "exceptional" occasions.

'Source'

The exchanges came during an appearance by the BBC top brass in front of the Culture committee as the corporation's annual report was published.

The hearing came ahead of a separate committee session on Tuesday afternoon which is expected to reopen the row over the government's September dossier which set out the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee are due to question the man named by the Ministry of Defence as the possible source of the BBC report claiming Downing Street had "sexed up" the dossier to make its case for war more compelling.

David Kelly is said to have briefed Andrew Gilligan in the week before his Today programme report on 29 May, which sparked a furious row between the government and the corporation.

The MoD says Dr Kelly admitted having told Mr Gilligan that the dossier's claim that Saddam Hussein could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes was probably included "for impact".

Jury still out

But the MoD says he denies accusing Downing Street of putting pressure on intelligence officers to "sex up" the document.

The BBC has refused to name its source, and rejected a call from Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon to confirm whether it was indeed Dr Kelly.

The Foreign Affairs Committee published a report on the case for war in Iraq last week which said the "jury was still out".

But it cleared Downing Street director of communications Alastair Campbell of "sexing up" the dossier. After Dr Kelly was named, the MPs decided to reopen the inquiry to get the chance to question him.