A document recording a conversation between Tony Blair and President Bush about Iraq was so sensitive that an order was made banning copies being made except to a select few, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.

The document was written by Matthew Rycroft, who was the Prime Minister’s private secretary on foreign affairs on April 16, 2004, when the meeting took place and the Oval Office of the White House. He is now Ambassador in Bosnia.

He was giving evidence for the prosecution in the trial of David Keogh, a civil servant who worked in a Cabinet Office communications centre, and Leo O’Connor, a political researcher working for a Labour MP, both of whom have pleaded not guilty to charges under the Official Secrets Act 1989 in relation to the unauthorised disclosure of the document. They face a maximum of two years in prison if found guilty.

Mr Rycroft, the first of several Downing Street witnesses expected to give evidence at the trial, said that he had stipulated at the top of his letter from Washington that “the document must only go to those who really need to see it”, and should not be copied to anyone else.

He said that he was surprised to discover that it had been given much wider circulation and had ended up on the desks of a number of officials at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office, MI6 and the Joint Intelligence Committee. A number of duty clerks and communications specialists had also seen it as part of their role to distribute it around Whitehall. All were in a position to have read the contents, Mr Rycroft said.

The prosecution accuses Mr Keogh of making an unlawful copy of the document, which had been faxed to the communications centre where he was on duty, and passing it to Mr O’Connor in the hope that it would end up in the public domain. Mr O’Connor slipped the document into a pile of papers belonging to Anthony Clarke, Labour MP for Northampton South. The MP handed it to Special Branch.

The contents of the document, which was in the form of a letter from Mr Rycroft to Geoffrey Adams, then private secretary to Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary at that time, had a “direct bearing” on British military action in Iraq, and was also relevant to what MI6 was doing in Iraq, Mr Rycroft said.

John Farmer, counsel for Mr O’Connor, asked Mr Rycroft why, given its sensitivity, a copy of the letter was also sent to David Hill, Mr Blair’s director of communications, and to Tom Kelly, his spokesman.

They were among 33 recipients of the “secret, personal” letter and a total of 87 who eventually saw it, the court was told.

Mr Farmer asked: “Was it in your contemplation in April 2004 for any part of this document to be made public?”

“Absolutely not,” Mr Rycroft replied.

Mr Farmer asked: “Was it your understanding that the Prime Minister himself, contrary perhaps to your view, intended that some or any part of it be disseminated to the public?”

Mr Rycroft denied that and explained that Mr Hill and Mr Kelly were given copies not to use the information in their work briefing the press, but so that they had a more complete knowledge of the policies the Prime Minister was putting forward to Mr Bush.

Mr Rycroft told the court that the meeting lasted about two hours and was also attended, on the British side, by Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the Prime Minister’s foreign policy adviser, and Jonathan Powell, his chief of staff. Mr Bush was accompanied by Colin Powell, then US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, then his National Security Adviser, and Dan Freed, special assistant to the President.

Mr Keogh, 50, is charged on two counts with disclosing the document without authorisation, having acquired it in the course of his job as a Crown servant. Mr O’Connor, 44, is charged with making a damaging disclosure, knowing that it was in breach of the Official Secrets Act.

The trial continues.

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