Blair under fire as Opposition quits Iraq probe

11.45am - By MIKE PEACOCK and PETER GRAFF

LONDON - Tony Blair's hopes of putting questions over Iraq behind him suffered a fresh setback when Britain's main opposition party withdrew support for a probe into the intelligence that sent the country to war.

Without support from the opposition Conservative Party, the inquiry -- set up last month to look into the quality of British intelligence on banned Iraqi weapons -- will give Blair little ammunition to silence his critics.

A furious Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called the Opposition move on Monday "shameless opportunism" and said Conservative Party leader Michael Howard had "abandoned all principle".

For the prime minister, anxious to shift political debate back onto the domestic agenda that wins and loses elections, Iraq is the problem that appears never to go away.

Blair's troubles worsened last week when prosecutors dropped a case against a spy services translator who leaked documents to try to stop the war, and when one of Blair's former cabinet members said Britain spied on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

On Monday Blair rejected calls to publish the government's secret pre-war advice on whether the war was legal.

Translator Katharine Gun, who admitted leaking documents, had said she planned to argue she was justified in breaking the law to prevent an illegal war, and would have demanded the government reveal its secret advice if her case went ahead.

Prosecutors dropped the case, saying they did not have enough evidence although she admitted breaking the law. Critics said the authorities feared putting the case before a jury.

The probe into intelligence about Iraq, led by former top civil servant Lord Butler, was seen as a late effort by Blair to clear the air over Iraq. The Conservatives, who supported the war, had agreed to play a part in the probe, although the other opposition party, the Liberal Democrats, opposed it.

However, Conservative leader Howard said in a letter to Blair he had decided to withdraw his backing for the probe because Butler had announced he would look only at "structures, systems and processes" and not at the actions of individuals.

"There is no basis in the terms of reference for that and I consider it a quite unjustifiable restriction of the committee's approach," Howard wrote.

Blair's officials were livid.

"Mr Howard called for an independent inquiry into intelligence. He got it," Straw told reporters.

"Now, within two weeks, Mr Howard seeks to jump on a passing bandwagon and flirt with those opposed to the war in an attempt to win cheap political points," he said. "Mr Howard believed that military action was right, but he lacks the backbone to stand up for what he once believed in."

Blair launched the Butler probe after an earlier inquiry by senior judge Lord Hutton absolved the government of exaggerating intelligence on the Iraq threat. Critics said the Hutton probe was too narrow, and wanted a wider look into why spies said Iraq would have weapons that have not yet been found.

Last week former aid minister Clare Short, who quit the government over Iraq, alleged Britain spied on Annan.

She also jumped into the fray over the government's secret pre-war legal advice, saying she believed Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, the government's top lawyer, had ruled that military action would be legal only after heavy political pressure.

"It is hard not to suspect that he had doubts and was leant upon," Short said at the weekend.

Her comments prompted the head of the government's civil service to write to her, asking her to give no more interviews about British intelligence operations. She responded by making his letter public and holding a further round of TV appearances.

Goldsmith said last week he had ruled war was legal and still thought he was right. But the government has never published more than a short summary of his thinking.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq