Regime change discussed a year before invasion, Iraq inquiry told

British officials secretly discussed the prospects for "regime change" in Iraq in late 2001 - more than a year before the invasion - the official inquiry into the war was told today.

On the first day of public hearings in London, the inquiry, headed by John Chilcot, heard that Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) officials drew up an internal "options" paper which included the possibility of ousting Saddam Hussein.