Hoon apologised to Lianne Seymour for the blunder after a private meeting at the defence ministry in London on Tuesday, defence officials said.

Seymour was originally told that she must move out of the house she shared with her husband Ian, a 28-year-old Royal Marine, who was killed in a helicopter crash in Kuwait in the first week of the war.

She was also told to reimburse the portion of her husband's salary paid into his bank account after the accident and before his body was identified.

The fiasco was brought up several times in the House of Commons on Monday and Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted there had been an error at the defence ministry, which later said Seymour could keep the 10 days extra pay her husband had posthumously received.

Seymour, 27, said earlier Tuesday that she had been told to apply for a three-month extension to stay in their house, after which she and her three-year-old son Beck must leave.

"I feel like I've been robbed of everything," the widow told Britain's independent ITV News. "This was our family home," she said.

"My husband's gone ... and just for the sake of 10 days' pay, they're telling me I have to make a repayment," she said.

"My husband died three weeks ago in a tragic accident. I'm supposed to be grieving his death but at the same time I'm having to worry about where I'll be living in six months' time," she told ITV News.

The Royal Marines officer who was dealing with her had made a "terrible mistake" in the letter he sent to her, junior defence minister Lewis Moonie told BBC radio.

"There is absolutely no question, nor has there ever been, of us receiving moneys from wages that we've overpaid to somebody who dies in our service. It does not happen," he said.

SPACE.WIRE