The father of three-year-old Naazish Khan, who died after being given an overdose of potassium in hospital, has spoken of his hope that an inquest will finally give him the answers to questions he has asked about his daughter's death for four years.

The inquest will resume in Leeds next month after the Court of Appeal yesterday overturned a High Court judgement that the family were not entitled to legal aid to pay for lawyers to represent them at the hearing.

It had been adjourned in February last year because the family could not afford to be legally represented.

But speaking at his home in St Margaret's Place, Great Horton, after the Court of Appeal ruling, Naazish's father, Mohammed Farooq Khan, warned that if the inquest did not provide the answers they wanted, they would seek an independent inquiry.

And Mr Khan, 40, a software engineer, said that the family had still not ruled out possible legal action against the hospital and its staff.

Naazish was being treated for a rare form of lymph cancer when she died at St James's Hospital, Leeds, in October 1999. Her death was certified as due to a cardio-respiratory attack and B Cell Lymphoma.

But weeks later police launched an investigation into Naazish's death after it was discovered she had suffered chemical poisoning.

Her body was exhumed and tests showed an overdose of potassium chloride was to blame for her death.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs St James's, admitted liability for the death.

But police decided not to pursue the matter after discussions with the Crown Prosecution Service.

Mr Khan said the Court of Appeal ruling was a "small step in the right direction".

He said: "It is good news but it has been a long time coming. It has been hell for us for four years, and still is. The inquest will resume next month and we will now be properly legally represented. Hopefully the inquest will be thorough and will get to the bottom of how my daughter died and why and we will finally get some answers.

"The police investigation raised a lot of questions that nobody has been able to answer, like how my daughter died, what was done by individual staff and why there was such a big attempt to cover things up.

"I am surprised the Court of Appeal ruled in our favour. I thought we would have to go to the European Court. But we can now see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

"But if we don't get the answers we want at the inquest we will seek some sort of independent inquiry."

Mr Khan and his wife Safia Sultana, 37, lost a daughter, eight year-old Shabana, from a rare illness four years before the death of Naazish.

They have four surviving children, two boys and two girls aged between five and 16.

Mr Khan said: "This has had a massive effect on the whole family and my wife has become a recluse in a world of her own most of the time because of it.

"We still don't sleep.

"It has been a nightmare and we cannot put it behind us until we have got the answers. We have had four years in which we have lost our child, had to go through her exhumation and a massive police investigation and we are still no further forward.

"One of my aims has always been to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else.

"If we can stop a single family going through what we have then we will have achieved something."