British and US spies ready to blame each other

By ROBERT VERKAIK in London

The special relationship between Britain and America will be severely tested as both countries embark on inquiries that are set to blame each other for the intelligence failure over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Britain is expected to draw first blood when the inquiry headed by former Cabinet secretary Lord Butler reports in the next few months.

George W. Bush - quite deliberately - will have to wait until after this year's US election before he gets his response.

In the meantime, America's intelligence community will be trying to pre-empt Lord Butler's findings by briefing both countries' media on flaws or shortcomings in Britain's intelligence-gathering operation .

Last year's transatlantic intelligence tiff over MI6's claim that Saddam had cultivated contacts with Niger may be a taster of what is to come. In the end it forced Bush into an embarrassing climbdown and the admission that they had been over-reliant on British intelligence. The fall-out left MI6 and CIA on bad terms.

But the central issue for both inquiries will be whose intelligence formed the basis of the flawed assessment of Saddam's weapons haul.

In other words, who followed whom? For once Britain's reliance on American intelligence might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

If Blair can show that the false war prospectus was based on American intelligence failures he may well escape some of the political damage from his own inquiry.

But the question will then be: why was British intelligence so dependent on America?

- INDEPENDENT