Legal action was launched in the High Court in Belfast today to force the British government to publish a report into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.
Mr Finucane's widow, Geraldine, is seeking leave to apply for a judicial review of the government's decision so far not to publish the report, which it received three months ago.
The Northern Ireland Office made it clear the government would fight the action.
The legal action came as SDLP leader Mark Durkan sought to put international pressure on Tony Blair to publish the report. He also accused Mr Blair of giving every impression of trying to do a cover up.
Retired Canadian Supreme Court judge Peter Cory examined allegations of security force collusion in some of the most controversial killings of the Troubles.
He was asked by the two governments to focus on six killings, and the reports on two IRA attacks have already been published in Dublin.
Judge Cory yesterday telephoned the families of the victims to say he had recommended public inquiries into each murder. He is understood to have told them there was sufficient suspicion of collusion in each case to warrant a public inquiry.
