SHANGHAI, July 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he had no regrets about invading Iraq, denying he had personally ordered the naming of David Kelly as the source of a BBC report that London "sexed up" evidence to make the case for war.

"No, I don't regret it," Blair told students at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University in response to a question on whether he remained comfortable about the decision to waging war on Iraq without the mandate of the U.N.

"No matter how difficult it was, it was the right thing to do. I took that decision because I thought it was right for my country and the world and I still think it is, so I have to stand by my decisions."

As he pushed on with his loop through Asia amid plummeting popularity at home, Blair was also tackled on Kelly's death.

He appeared to be caught off guard when a female student asked him how he felt when he learned that Kelly had died and how he thought he would get through the crisis and regain the British public's trust, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"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 this situation except to say there will be a proper independent inquiry into what happened," said Blair.

After leaving Shanghai for Hong Kong, Blair defended his government's actions in the affair.

He also denied authorizing the identification of Kelly, a senior Ministry of Defense consultant on Iraq’s weapon program, as the source for a highly controversial BBC story that Downing Street doctored a dossier on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

"I did not authorize the leaking of the name of David Kelly,” Blair told reporters.

"I believe we have acted properly throughout. There are a whole lot of questions that the inquiry will ask and we will answer them."

Kelly's death last week has been considered by several observers and analysts as Blair’s major crisis since taking office six years ago.

Blair's comments came as speculations grew as to how Kelly's identity came into the public domain and several British newspapers suggesting that British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was the one allowing Kelly to be named as a "mole".

The Financial Times said Hoon had approved a media strategy whereby the Ministry of Defence would confirm Kelly's name to journalists if they suggested it.

The Independent expressed conviction that the MoD wanted to protect Dr Kelly's identity, but was overruled by Downing Street.

On Sunday the BBC admitted Kelly was the source of their report.

In a separate development, the Times says it has detected the first cracks in the board of governors of the BBC over their handling of the row.

But in a statement issued on Tuesday, BBC chairman Gavyn Davies said that all the governors stood by their earlier assertion that they believed it was in the public interest to broadcast the story about the way the case for war was presented.

"I and my fellow governors learned that Dr Kelly was the principal source for both Andrew Gilligan's and Susan Watts' reports only after Dr Kelly's tragic death.”

The Times had said an unnamed governor had demanded an emergency meeting to review whether the board had all the facts it needed when it issued a statement supporting the report by Gilligan earlier this month.