Intelligence overhaul needed, admits Blair

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair last night conceded there needed to be a shake-up in the way intelligence could be used in the run-up to war - including an abandonment of his informal "sofa" style of government.

Mr Blair told MPs that in any future situation like the build-up to conflict with Iraq, an ad-hoc war cabinet would be formed to hold minuted meetings, instead of gathering like minds together in his No 10 "den". Such a group would operate "formally as an ad hoc committee of Cabinet," said Mr Blair, after Lord Butler criticised the style of decision-making in Downing Street in his Iraq report last week.

Mr Blair had earlier admitted that as the invasion of Iraq loomed, meetings were held with an informal group involving the Foreign and Defence Secretaries, the Chief of Defence staff, the Chief of MI6 and the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. Mr Blair, opening a Commons debate on Iraq and the Butler report, also said a senior Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) officer had been appointed to review the Butler inquiry's findings.

One was that cash cuts had meant intelligence was no longer properly reviewed, or "validated" by experienced officers.

Mr Blair said any future presentation of intelligence would separate JIC assessments from the Government's political case for war. His concessions defused the debate, despite a determined but unsuccessful bid from Tory leader Michael Howard to claim Mr Blair had skewed the information in his possession to lead the country to war.

And the Tory leader questioned whether, if any such decision was needed in the future and Mr Blair had presented the case for war "would anyone believe him?".

But Mr Howard's complaints were blunted as he made clear he still supported British involvement in the conflict.

Mr Blair vigorously defended his case for going to war, saying: "The intelligence ... really left little doubt about Saddam and WMD. That was the issue."

It also made it "absolutely clear that we were entirely entitled, on the basis of that, to go back to the UN and say there was a continuing threat from Saddam Hussein".

Mr Blair accepted he had made mistakes, adding: "Of course, which is why I said at the very beginning that these are the things that I believe that the Butler report has identified that we should change.

"I fully accept those things. What I do not accept is that it was a mistake to go to war. I still think it was the right thing to do."

Mr Howard disappointed some Tory MPs with his response.

The Conservative leader told Mr Blair the Butler report confirmed intelligence reports on Saddam's WMD were "sporadic, patchy, little and limited". Mr Howard went on: "You told the country that the basis of the intelligence was extensive, detailed and authoritative. That was wrong. Why did you say that to the country?"

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy also attacked Mr Blair's use of intelligence, citing former chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix as confirming Mr Blair's verdict in his September 2002 dossier was unjustified.