'Mass destruction weapons will be found'

2003-05-30 10:03

Warsaw - British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday dismissed as "completely absurd" the idea that intelligence agencies fabricated evidence that Iraq had arms of mass destruction to justify making war on the country.

Speaking in Poland at a press conference with Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller Blair also said he had "no doubt at all" that weapons would be found in the end.

However, Blair told reporters that with Saddam gone the priority was rebuilding Iraq, and he warned his critics that they might have a long wait for evidence of illegal weapons to come to light.

But he rounded on allegations that Britain's intelligence services had been asked to embellish evidence that Iraq had weapons ready for immediate use.

"The idea that we asked our national intelligence agencies to invent some piece of evidence is completely absurd," he said.

Opponents of the Iraq war were "now trying to find fresh reasons why it was not the right thing to do", he said.

He added "there's no doubt about a chemical programme, a biological programme, the nuclear weapons programme. That was well documented by the United Nations."

"Our priority having got rid of Saddam is to rebuild the country," he said.

- AFX