Fresh attacks on Blair over Iraq

British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday faced a fresh wave of attacks for "deceiving" the country over Saddam Hussein's weapons arsenal.

Former Cabinet minister Clare Short stepped up her calls on Blair to quit over the war after the US official running Iraq rejected the British Prime Minister's claim that evidence of Saddam's hidden weapons laboratories had been unearthed.

And Labour MP Diane Abbott warned that Blair had risked backbench rebellions by making loyal MPs feel like "pillocks" over the Iraq war.

In a Christmas message to troops, Blair said the Iraq Survey Group had unearthed "massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories". It showed Saddam had attempted to "conceal weapons".

But Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, said that simply was not true, although he did not realise Blair had made the claim when it was put to him.

In fact, Bremer said, it sounded like a "red herring" put about by someone opposed to military action to undermine the coalition.


Herald Feature: Iraq