Blair said he stood "100 per cent" behind the evidence on the Iraqi threat

LONDON, June 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Forced onto the defensive over the failure to produce weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the U.S. and British governments still insist the main reason behind invading and occupying the Arab state exists, dismissing claims they misled their nations into unnecessary war, press reports said Tuesday, June 3.

After days of mounting pressure, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was forced to issue his strongest denial that Downing Street had exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq, according to British daily the Independent.

At a G8 summit press conference in Evian, France, Blair was “uncomfortable in the extreme as he rebutted charges his spin machine had "duped" the country into war”. He even adopted the logic of his critics, who have long demanded evidence of his pretext for war, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and represented an imminent threat to the West.

Washington and London used accusations that Iraq was secretly developing chemical and biological weapons as the main justification to launch the war on Saddam’s Iraq.

However, critics have said intelligence evidence was deliberately twisted to whip up support for an invasion.

Blair angrily denied the suggestions. "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," Blair told reporters.

And in Rome, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said: "There were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It wasn't a figment of anyone's imagination."

But Blair's frustration with claims that he misled the nation over the war on Iraq boiled over Monday, leading him to make an unprecedented attack on his cabinet Minister Clare Short, calling her a liar, and rejected calls for an independent inquiry into the affair.

"I think it is important that if people actually have evidence that they produce it. But it is wrong, frankly, for people to make allegations on the basis of so-called anonymous sources, when the facts are precisely the facts we have stated."

Blair is to come under fire Tuesday when he makes a statement before the House of Commons. Labor MPs intensified demands for a full investigation into the alleged manipulation of intelligence reports about Baghdad's weapons.

According to the Independent, one Labor backbencher said the issue was as serious as the Watergate scandal that brought down Richard Nixon.

Amid claims that Alastair Campbell, Blair's communications chief, could become the scapegoat for the controversy, the Tories added to the pressure by warning that key questions were unanswered.

On Monday, Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, became the first leader of a mainstream political party to demand an inquiry. Kennedy, according to the paper, said that Blair's attempts to make the case for war have seriously harmed his standing and trust in the Government.

However, Blair said he stood "100 per cent" behind the evidence in government dossiers on the Iraqi threat and rejected claims that information was "sexed up" to justify the war.

The allegation that appeared to have provoked Blair more than any other was Ms Short's claim that there was no real Cabinet role in the decisions leading up to the war, because everything of importance was decided "secretly" by Blair and (U.S. President) George Bush.

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

"Charges should have evidence but there is none.'' Blair said every single piece of intelligence presented by Downing Street was cleared "very properly" by the Joint Intelligence Committee.

An international survey group on WMD was starting its work this week interviewing scientists and experts. "When we accumulate that evidence properly we will give it to people. I have no doubt at all the assessments made by the British intelligence services will turn out to be correct," he said.

Malcolm Savidge, Labour MP for Aberdeen North and one of 73 MPs who have signed a Commons motion calling for the Government's evidence to be published in full, said: "I cannot conceive of a more serious accusation than that Parliament and the people could have been misled into being brought into a war on false pretences. That to me is more serious than Watergate."

In Russia, which opposed the war, a top official urged the United States to quickly clear up the issue. "This should not be allowed to be dragged out," said Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov.

Forged Documents

Waxman claimed the Bush administration used forged documents to make a case to invade Iraq

In Washington, top U.S. lawmakers said they would investigate whether Washington officials exaggerated claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Senator John Warner said the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees will hold joint hearings into whether an intelligence breakdown occurred in the run-up to the Iraq war, or whether officials oversold intelligence data to whip up domestic support for the conflict.

A senior U.S. congressman, Henry Waxman of California, alleged that the Bush administration used forged documents to make its case in favor of invading Iraq.

At the United Nations, chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said UN arms inspectors could resume work in Iraq in two weeks if needed.

The inspectors left the country three days before the war began in late March and Washington has since said that it opposes their return in the short term, and has instead sent 1,300 of its own experts.