Some sessions of Iraq war inquiry could be public

LONDON (Reuters) - Some sessions of an inquiry into the Iraq war may be held in public, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said on Thursday, after critics accused the government of a cover-up.

"The issue of public or private is not a great issue of theology for us," the prime minister's spokesman told reporters.

"It will be up to (inquiry chairman) Sir John Chilcot to consider how the precise format of the inquiry will be structured," he added.

Brown announced the inquiry on Monday in a move seen as an attempt to heal some of the rifts in the Labour Party caused by the decision to join the U.S.-led invasion six years ago.

However, the decision to hold the inquiry in private brought criticism from the opposition and senior military figures.

The spokesman said the government wanted to avoid a protracted inquiry which took years to establish the facts and became bogged down in red tape.

The inquiry is expected to report next year but not before a general election due by June 2010.

Brown said in a letter that he hoped that Chilcot would meet the families of British personnel killed in Iraq, adding that this could be in public or private, at their request.

A total of 179 British soldiers and military personnel have been killed in Iraq.