Lord Goldsmith

An independent watchdog is deciding whether ministers can keep secret the attorney general's advice on the war on Iraq.

Information commissioner Richard Thomas is likely to be given access to the guidance on the legality of the military action.

Thomas, who oversees the operation of the Freedom of Information Act, received a number of complaints after ministers refused to publish Lord Goldsmith's advice.

He will be investigating the complaints but could not go into any further details at this stage.

"We have recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Lord Falconer on behalf of all government departments,'' said the Commissioner.

"It sets out the basis for co-operation in the interests of efficiency between my office and government departments.

"The departments will provide my office with all relevant information, including everything that has been withheld or redacted and we undertake to keep it appropriately secure and not to release it to third parties."

Thomas will have to decide if the government is right to say the public interest in keeping the advice secret outweighs the public interest in disclosing it.

A spokeswoman for the attorney general said they would cooperate with the commissioner "if and when we reach
that stage".

Confidential

Meanwhile Jack Straw has been defending the legality of the government's decision to go to war with Iraq.

The foreign secretary was called to the Commons on Thursday to make a statement following the latest revelations about Lord Goldsmith's controversial legal advice.

Renewed speculation followed the release, under the Freedom of Information Act, of the resignation letter of the Foreign Office's deputy legal adviser.

Elizabeth Wilmshurst, in her letter of March 18, 2003, wrote of a possible war that "an unlawful use of force on such a scale amounts to the crime of aggression".

However, one paragraph of the letter was blacked out prior to its release to news organisations.

Channel 4 News said the missing section said Wilmshurst's views were the same as "what the attorney general gave us to understand was his view prior to his letter of 7th of March".

The letter appears to confirm previous reports that as late as March 7, 2003 Lord Goldsmith was of the belief that war would be illegal.

However, on March 17 he issued a written statement setting out a legal basis for the war.