Mark Byford met BBC executives on Friday

Mark Byford said the resignation of reporter Andrew Gilligan had been an "important development" in a tough week.

He refused to be drawn on whether the BBC should accept Hutton's conclusions, which Mr Gilligan said were one-sided.

Mr Byford was giving his first media interviews since Lord Hutton's criticisms led to the departure of director general Greg Dyke on Thursday.

He addressed a meeting of the BBC Executive Committee at Television Centre earlier on Friday.

Lord Hutton's report is a matter of some difference of opinion and the BBC will debate those opinions but the BBC will not have a view on the Hutton Report itself Mark Byford BBC acting director general

Afterwards, he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "What I am trying to do is, in what has been a turbulent week, bring calmness, some stability, some leadership to the BBC to move forward."

Later he was interviewed on BBC Two's Newsnight programme, where he was asked about Mr Gilligan's resignation.

He said: "I recognise it's an important development in a very turbulent week.

"I know Andrew Gilligan has been through a very difficult period, that is all I will say on the matter."

Earlier on Friday, it was announced Mr Byford was to head an internal investigation into failings highlighted by Lord Hutton regarding the BBC's editorial procedures.

Head of news Richard Sambrook e-mailed the corporation's 3,500 news staff to say senior managers would look at what they had to do to rebuild trust in BBC News.

'Grovelling'

Mr Byford told Newsnight: "The BBC has got to accept that Lord Hutton has published his findings.

"The BBC says it recognises it has made mistakes and we also recognise that Lord Hutton's report is a matter of some difference of opinion and the BBC will debate those opinions, but the BBC will not have a view on the Hutton report itself.

"What it will have a view on is that the BBC did make some mistakes, Lord Hutton criticised the BBC, we are going to learn from those mistakes and move forward."

THE HUTTON REPORT Full Report (PDF file 2MB) Lord Hutton's statement Hutton report in full (html version) Chapter 12: Summary

David Attenborough, a former BBC executive, said the apology issued by the BBC's acting chairman of governors, Richard Ryder, was "grovelling" to ministers.

But Mr Byford said the apology was a recognition the BBC made had errors.

He said: "Trust is the foundation of the BBC and definitely its journalism.

"What audiences in the UK and around the world expect from the BBC is independence from government and any political or commercial pressure.

"They expect accurate, fair, objective and impartial journalism and that's what they'll get under my leadership."

But it was equally important to admit mistakes in order to maintain trust, he added.