Blair 'double-crossed' by Bush aides

Tony Blair was "doubled-crossed" by United States President George W. Bush's aides in the run-up to the Iraq war, according to the former diplomat at the centre of the political crisis engulfing the White House.

Former Ambassador Joe Wilson, whose wife Valerie Plame was allegedly "outed" as an undercover CIA agent, says Blair was duped by the White House into supporting action against Iraq to force disarmament on Saddam Hussein when regime change was their key objective.

Wilson said: "I watched the way that the British built their case, and it was a disarmament case as best I could see it.

"Blair came to the US when Bush was talking about regime change, and when he left Bush started talking about disarmament as the objective."

He praised Blair for persuading Bush to go to the UN Security Council for support for action against Iraq. "I think that Blair really thought that he was getting involved in a disarmament campaign, which was all to the good - I fully supported that. I think at the end of the day he was double-crossed by the regime change crowd in Washington."

Wilson is the most senior Bush administration figure to claim Blair was tricked by the White House. It follows remarks by former president Bill Clinton that the attack on Iraq was "a big mistake", and will increase the pressure for an inquiry into Blair's handling of the run-up to the war.

A cross-party group led by former Tory minister Douglas Hogg has tabled a Commons motion calling for the inquiry, signed by 32 MPs.

Wilson's view is borne out by the transcript of the joint press conference by Bush and Blair when they met before the war in Texas to discuss the action against Iraq.

Bush made it plain that he favoured regime change, but Blair refused to endorse that as a reason for going to war.

Blair's allies say that in private, he had not acted like "the president's poodle" as his critics have claimed.

"He has been prepared to stand up to the President," said one. "He has been prepared to speak to the President to make sure that detainees held in prisons in Iraq have been properly treated and eventually released."

- Independent