A coroner has launched a scathing attack on the MoD for refusing to release a tape of the moment a soldier was killed by US forces in Iraq.

The coroner presiding over the inquest of Lance Corporal Matty Hull, who died in 2003 when his tank came under attack by US forces, backed the soldier's "grieving family" and hit out at the Ministry of Defence.

The soldier's widow Susan told the coroner that she had been told "categorically" by the MoD that the recording did not exist.

The flight data tape is believed to be from one of the US A-10 tankbusters that opened fire on a Household Cavalry troop, killing L/Cpl Hull.

MoD lawyer Leigh-Ann Mulcahy said that "high-level diplomacy between US and UK governments" was needed over the release of a classified cockpit recording.

But Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker said: "This is a simple matter and I simply fail to understand why it is proving so difficult to resolve."

He added: "At the heart of this matter is a grieving family who have already had to wait far too long for this inquest."

An application by the MoD for the case to be adjourned for a week has been thrown out at the inquest in Oxford.