Defiant Blair rejects resignation

LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair defiantly dismissed all talk of resignation yesterday amid growing signs that his political management in the run-up to the Iraq war will be censured in this week's report by Lord Butler.

The former Cabinet secretary has told colleagues he believes that the Prime Minister failed to take sufficient responsibility in the months before the invasion of Iraq.

Butler is understood to have withheld the key conclusions of his report from Downing St in an attempt to limit its ability to manipulate media coverage.

Blair's leading Cabinet allies are trying to crush any suggestion that he is on the point of quitting.

The BBC reported that Blair came close to resigning last month but was dissuaded from doing so by a group of four Cabinet members.

They separately approached Blair because he was "seriously reviewing" his future as Prime Minister, the BBC said.

The Independent on Sunday reported that at least six Cabinet ministers approached the Prime Minister individually, appealing to him not to step down.

Charles Clarke, Secretary for Education, said that he had a face-to-face conversation with Blair after MPs returned from the Easter break. He said that he had intended to appeal to Blair not to quit, but realised "within 20 seconds" that he was determined to carry on.

He added: "I thought the speculation was bollocks but I decided I would go to Tony, because I very much wanted him to stay.

"I wondered if there was any uncertainty in his mind about where he stood, but actually it was immediately clear that the conversation was redundant."

Four other Cabinet ministers - John Reid, Tessa Jowell, Peter Hain and Lord Falconer - approached Blair to urge him to stay on. Patricia Hewitt, another of Blair's Cabinet allies, has written him a letter also encouraging him to continue.

The Prime Minister faces two key byelections on Friday in normally safe Labour seats.

Butler's report is expected to be less fierce than last week's Senate findings into the CIA's judgments about Iraq's weapons - which did not, however, extend to criticising President George Bush, or the White House.

Butler is also likely to avoid criticising Blair by name, or to make any mention of his former press secretary Alastair Campbell, but will conclude that Downing St "dodged" its responsibility to ensure intelligence was properly evaluated and used.

Among the evidence he has found is the minutes of a meeting in Downing St in March 2002 which decided that the available intelligence did not justify war. Seven months later, Blair told the Commons that the threat from Iraq's weaponry was "serious and current".

John Scarlett, the incoming head of MI6, and the man he replaces - Sir Richard Dearlove - both face censure, according to reports.

Pauline Neville-Jones, former head of Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee, said Blair and his Government could not escape any blame levelled at intelligence services over mistakes made about Iraq.

Missing weapons

The report will aim to shed light on the process that led London to believe Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

No such weapons have been found.

Tony Blair made the need to destroy the weapons the central point of his arguments justifying going to war in Iraq.

After repeating his conviction for months that Iraq possessed them, Blair admitted last week that he now accepted that weapons of mass destruction might never be found.

- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq