Blair: Under renewed pressure

Downing Street has played down the significance of a memo which reveals Tony Blair was looking for reasons to justify the Iraq conflict nearly a year before troops went into the country.

The Sunday Times has published a leaked memo which states that George W Bush had made up his mind to remove Saddam Hussein as early as July 2002.

It is headed "secret and strictly personal - UK eyes only" and goes on to say the content is "extremely sensitive".

Written by a Number 10 foreign policy adviser, the memo quotes foreign secretary Jack Straw as saying that the US president "made up his mind to take military action even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin."

"Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran," it adds.

"We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would help with the legal justification for the use of force."

Iraq woes

The release of the document follows a week dominated by the Iraq issue.

Blair was on Thursday forced to publish the legal advice he received from attorney general Lord Goldsmith.

Interviewed on Breakfast with Frost, the prime minister sought to play down the significance of the latest revelations.

"You have got to discuss everything as you go along, but the point is that after that meeting we decided to go back to the UN and give him a last chance," he said.

"If the UN resolution had been adhered to by Saddam that would have been the end of it, despite the fact it was the most appalling regime."

Meanwhile in an interview with the Observer, the then chief of the defence staff, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, said he was confident that the war was legal.

He confirmed that he had asked for reassurances that there was a legal basis to the conflict.

"I wanted to make sure that we had this anchor which has been signed by the government law officer... It may not stop us from being charged, but, by God, it
would make sure other people were brought into the frame as well," he told the newspaper.