DEFENCE Secretary Geoff Hoon has not ruled out the possibility of a public inquiry into the deaths of six Royal Military Police (RMP) officers killed by a mob in Iraq, the brother of one of the victims said last night.

However, the parents of one of the victims from North Yorkshire stayed away from a meeting between Mr Hoon and families of the victims.

John and Sandra Hyde did not attend the meeting because they said Mr Hoon would not be able to tell them anything they did not know.

Their son, Lance Corporal Ben Hyde, 23, was killed alongside five other RMP's, known as Red Caps, during an ambush at a police station in Majar al-Kabir, near Basra, in June last year.

Tony Hamilton-Jewell, 57, whose 41-year-old brother, Simon, died in the attack, said Mr Hoon had pledged to look into whether a full inquiry into the deaths of the Red Caps could be held.

An investigation into the deaths is being carried out by the RMP Special Investigations Branch (SIB). Mr Hyde, from Northallerton, met with officials two weeks ago to discuss the investigation.

Other families are pressing for a public inquiry to investigate reports that the soldiers' radio signals were liable to black out.

Mr Hyde said: "We had a lengthy meeting with the SIB, who are carrying out the investigation, and they gave us a briefing right up to date.

"We have had quite a bit of correspondence with Geoff Hoon. We have had several letters from him and he has cleared up a lot of questions I had that he could deal with.

Mr Hyde is writing a book about his son's time in Iraq and is travelling to his regiment's base in Colchester next week to find out more about the last four weeks of his life.

The other soldiers who died were: Corporal Simon Miller, 21, from Washington, Wearside; Sergeant Simon Hamilton-Jewell, from Surrey; Corporal Russell Aston, 30, from Derbyshire, who was married with a daughter; Corporal Paul Long, 24, from Essex; and Lance Corporal Thomas Keys, 20, from Wales.