The publication of legal advice from the attorney general in the run up to the Iraq war dominates today's front pages.

In the advice, which was leaked last night to news organisations, Tony Blair's top law officer indicated that the invasion of Iraq could be judged illegal.

However, the document does not contain a "smoking gun" which would fatally undermine Labour's general election campaign.

Lord Goldsmith's initial statement, written as the US and UK were trying to get a second UN resolution, does not contain a categorical statement that the war would be illegal without a second resolution.

Nevertheless, the Conservatives seized on the leak, claiming that the advice from March 7, 2003 showed Blair had been guilty of a "gross deception" of parliament and the public.

Tory leader Michael Howard said: "Mr Blair has said that the attorney general's advice to the Cabinet on March 17 was 'very clear' that the war was legal, and that the attorney general had not changed his mind.

"It is obvious that he did. So what the public must now have an answer to is this: what, or who, changed the attorney general's mind?"

But responding last night, Lord Goldsmith insisted that the document simply showed that he "took account of all the arguments before reaching my conclusion" that the war could be justified in international law.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said the prime minister had justified the decision to go to war "in a seriously misleading way".