The resignation spree over Prime Minister Tony Blair's Iraq policy continued in Britain with a senior legal adviser at the foreign office quitting over the legality of the government's decision to go to war.

Deputy Legal Adviser Elizabeth Wilmhurst 'was understood to be unhappy with the government's official line that it has sufficient basis for war against Iraq under (existing) UN resolutions', the Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday.

"A legal advisor has decided to leave over the last few days," a foreign office spokesman said, but refused to disclose the reason, the paper said.

Wilmhurst, 54, had been a legal adviser for 30 years and deputy legal adviser since 1997.

Her resignation will be an 'embarrassment' to Blair as well as Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and raises new doubts about the legal basis for the war, the Guardian said.

"It will encourage anti-war MPs to renew pressure on Attorney General Lord Goldsmith to publish in full his legal advice to the government," the paper said.

Earlier, Junior Health Minister Lord Hunt, Home Office Minister John Denham, the leader of the House of Commons Robin Cook and two ministerial aides resigned over Blair's Iraq policy.

PTI