Election to halt Iraq war probe

BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other government ministers will not appear before an inquiry into the Iraq war until after a general election next year, the inquiry has said.

John Chilcot, head of the inquiry, has said that he wants it to remain outside of party politics. Public hearings will be suspended from February until after the election which must be held by June.

Former PM Tony Blair will appear before the inquiry early in the new year. Alastair Campbell, Blair's director of communications, has also been asked to appear in either January or February.

Blair said he believed it was right to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power in 2003 even though no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.