Blair faces Iraq apology demands
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-08 21:07

Tony Blair has returned from Africa to a fresh rumpus over his justification for the Iraq war after a minister gave the government's first direct apology for faulty intelligence on weapons of mass destruction.

Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said she was "sorry" on behalf of the prime minister and his government for the inaccuracy of information on Saddam Hussein's armaments.

That sparked new calls for Blair to utter the word himself.

"The only apology that would count would be from the prime minister acknowledging the government took us to war on a flawed prospectus," said Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, the only mainstream anti-war party.

"It is not the intelligence for which we need an apology, but the way in which it was used," he said.

Britain's stance contrasts with that of U.S. President George W. Bush who has so far declined to offer any apology over intelligence failures.

The furore over the war resurfaced after U.S. inspectors said on Wednesday that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.

Blair was questioned on Iraq at every turn during a trip to Sudan and Ethiopia, which he had hoped would draw the world's attention to poverty and instability in Africa.

Having defied widespread public opposition and backed Bush, Blair's ratings have plummeted over Iraq although he is still expected to win a third term in office at the next election, probably in May.

The Liberal Democrats called on Blair to make a statement on the findings of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) to parliament next week.

The opposition Conservative Party -- which vows to make the issue of trust a key plank of the election campaign -- said the report was further evidence Blair told lies.

The ISG report also piled pressure on Bush, with the November election looking too close to call. Bush faces a TV debate with Democrat rival John Kerry later on Friday.

BLAIR JUSTIFIES WAR

Hewitt, on the BBC's Question Time programme late on Thursday, apologised for intelligence after members of the audience rejected her assertion that Blair himself had done so.

"I certainly want to say that all of us, from the Prime Minister down, all of us who were involved in making an incredibly difficult decision are very sorry and do apologise for the fact that that information was wrong," Hewitt said.

Blair, asking parliament to back the 2003 invasion, said Iraq had weapons ready for use and was a threat to UK interests.

Blair believes he has gone as far as he can to apologise for the intelligence, and is desperate to move on.

Anxious to heal rifts in his Labour Party over Iraq, Blair told a party conference last week intelligence had been "wrong".

"The problem is I can apologise for the information that turned out to be wrong but I can't, sincerely at least, apologise for removing Saddam," he said then.

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