Iraq could have deployed WMD in days or weeks

THE BBC last night disclosed a previously unscreened interview with the late weapons expert Dr David Kelly in which he said Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction within “days or weeks”.

The comments were seized on by British Government opponents as further evidence that its claim made a month before Dr Kelly gave his interview that Iraqi WMD could be deployed within 45 minutes was wrong.

The Tories renewed their call for a judicial inquiry into events leading up to the war and the Liberal Democrats said Dr Kelly's comments underlined the expert's scepticism about the No 10 claims made in a dossier published in September, 2002.