Blair in bid to face down Labour revolt

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday insisted that he stood “absolutely 100%” behind intelligence claims made by the government about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the war, as he sought to face down a looming revolt by Labour MPs.

Mr Blair vehemently rejected allegations by former international development secretary Clare Short that he had struck a secret deal last September with US President George W Bush that they would invade Iraq. He also dismissed the idea that Downing Street had "doctored" material from the intelligence agencies in order to strengthen the case for military action as "completely and totally false".

But his defiant performance failed to quell the rising anger among Labour MPs opposed to the war, who are concerned parliament and the public was misled over the threat posed by Iraqi weapons to justify the war.

One backbencher warned Mr Blair that the allegations were potentially "more serious than Watergate".

The pressure on the government increased with the disclosure that a powerful joint committee of US senators is to hold a public inquiry into claims the Bush administration also exaggerated the threat of Iraqi weapons.

Mr Blair, attending the G8 summit in Evian, France, was forced onto the defensive following Ms Short's latest claim that he had "duped" the British people over the reasons for war.

"Charges should have evidence and there is none," he said.

"The idea, as apparently Clare Short is saying, that I made some secret agreement with George Bush back last September that we would invade Iraq in any event, at a particular time, is also completely absurd."

Mr Blair insisted that all the evidence in the government's controversial dossier on Iraq's weapons programme including a dramatic claim that some weapons could be ready within 45 minutes of an order to deploy had been cleared by the Joint Intelligence Committee.

"The idea that we doctored intelligence reports in order to invent some notion about a 45-minute capability of delivering weapons of mass destruction ... is completely and totally false."

However, ministers have already acknowledged that the 45 minute-readiness claim was based on information from a single source and had not been corroborated by any other evidence.

And there was little sign Mr Blair's latest intervention had done anything to convince the doubters among Labour MPs. More than 50 have now signed a Commons motion calling for the publication of the full government evidence on Iraqi weapons.

To add to the government's discomfort, a leading expert on biological weapons cast doubt on the sole evidence discovered by troops in Iraq of a weapons programme.

Mr Blair said two trailers fitted with scientific equipment were "almost certainly" part of a fleet of mobile biological weapons laboratories used by the Iraqis to escape detection.

However, weapons expert Professor Harry Smith said he was "pretty sceptical" of the claims. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that mobile biological weapons facilities have solid sides, unlike those discovered in Iraq.