Pressure mounts on Blair
03/06/2003 13:00  - (SA)  

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London - Prime Minister Tony Blair faced more pressure on Tuesday to explain his government's claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and some lawmakers said a formal inquiry seemed increasingly likely.

Controversy has focused on a government dossier, published in September, outlining evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and plans to deploy them on 45 minutes' notice.

The existence of such weapons was Blair's crucial argument for joining the United States in military action, and pressure on him has grown as occupying British and US forces in Iraq have failed to locate chemical, biological or nuclear arms.

Tony Wright, a member of Blair's Labour Party and chairperson of the Commons Public Administration Committee, said an inquiry was now "almost inevitable".

"I think the new twist in all this is the suggestion that somehow the government didn't play it straight as far as the information was concerned," he told British Broadcasting Corporation radio.

More than 50 Labour lawmakers have signed a Commons motion drafted by Peter Kilfolye, a former Labor defense minister, calling on the government to publish the evidence behind the dossier.

The Liberal Democrats, the third-largest party in parliament, have called for a public inquiry. The main opposition Conservative Party has not endorsed an inquiry, but has urged Blair to publish any additional evidence to support the claims made before the war.

"Here is probably the biggest issue for almost a generation where Parliament must be seen to be asserting itself," Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy told the BBC.

Kennedy, who had opposed British involvement in the war, said he believed the government's methods of presenting its case may have misled some people.

"I suspect that in presentational terms No. 10 (Blair's office) has gone for the most arresting presentation of the facts but that may in itself have had the very, very unfortunate affect of misleading certain people..."

John Denham, who resigned as a minister at the Home Office because of the war, suggested a wide-ranging inquiry similar to one conducted following the Falklands war in 1982. He said it should examine issues of "intelligence, weapons of mass destruction and the diplomatic moves and failures that led to war itself." - Sapa-AP

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