WOUNDS to the body of Oxfordshire weapons inspector David Kelly were "typical of self-inflicted injury", according to previously secret medical documents.

Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke said he was publishing the documents on how Dr Kelly died "in the interests of maintaining public confidence in the inquiry into how Dr Kelly came by his death".

Lord Hutton, who conducted the inquiry into Dr Kelly's death, ruled that the report should remain secret for 70 years, but there were a number of calls for another examination of the case.

In a statement, Lord Hutton denied the report had been concealed, saying: "There was no secrecy surrounding the post-mortem report because it had always been available for examination and questioning by counsel representing the interested parties during the inquiry."

Lord Hutton said his request that the documents should not be released for 70 years was "solely in order to protect Dr Kelly's widow and daughters for the remainder of their lives (the daughters being in their twenties at that time) from the distress which they would suffer from further discussion of the details of Dr Kelly's death in the media".

He added: "My request was not a concealment of evidence because every matter of relevance had been examined or was available for examination during the public inquiry. There was no secrecy surrounding the post-mortem report because it had always been available for examination and questioning by counsel representing the interested parties during the inquiry."

Lord Hutton said his inquiry was "open and public" and neither Dr Kelly's family, the Government nor the BBC "asked for leave to question or challenge by cross examination" witnesses whose evidence "led to the conclusion that Dr Kelly had committed suicide and had not been murdered".

These included the pathologist Dr Nicholas Hunt, leading suicide expert Professor Keith Hawton, the director of the Centre for Suicide Research in the University of Oxford, and others, Lord Hutton said.

David Kelly's body was found in woods near Southmoor, Abingdon, home in July 2003 after he was identified as the source of a BBC story claiming the Government "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction.

In the outcry that followed, Tony Blair appointed Lord Hutton to head a public inquiry into his death. Unusually, the then lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, ruled it should also act as an inquest.

The conclusions of the post-mortem examination by Dr Nicholas Hunt matched those of Lord Hutton's report.

Lord Hutton's inquiry concluded Dr Kelly took his own life and that the principal cause of death was "bleeding from incised wounds to his left wrist which Dr Kelly had inflicted on himself with the knife found beside his body".

He also found the scientist took an overdose of co-proxamol tablets - a painkiller commonly used for arthritis - and that he was suffering from an undiagnosed heart condition.

But doubts about Dr Kelly's death have refused to go away and in the summer Dr Hunt, a Home Office pathologist, said he would welcome a new inquest into the death. Conspiracy theorists have suggested there may be more to his death.

In August, a group of prominent medical figures signed a letter stating that the official explanation was "extremely unlikely". And Detective Constable Graham Coe, who found the body, said there had not been much blood at the scene.