Bush tells US: it was a war of necessity

GEORGE Bush yesterday defended his decision to invade Iraq as a "war of necessity" and insisted Saddam Hussein had the capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction although none has been found.

In a rare television interview, the president of the United States denied staunchly that he led his troops and their British allies into war under false pretences.

Mr Bush conceded that it was "correct" that weapons of mass destruction had not been found in Iraq. But in a shifting of his rationale for war, he emphasised a different reason for why it was necessary.

He said he had "no doubt" Saddam posed a threat to the United States. "He had the capacity to have a weapon, make a weapon. We thought he had weapons. The international community thought he had weapons.

"But he had the capacity to make a weapon and then let that weapon fall into the hands of a shadowy terrorist network."

Mr Bush’s remarks were designed to help set the tone for his presidential election campaign later this year, but they will have piled fresh embarrassment on Tony Blair.

The Prime Minister is facing the prospect of an inquiry into the intelligence used by the government to justify the war and Mr Bush acknowledged that some pre-war intelligence may have been inaccurate.

However, Mr Bush said he remained convinced that evidence of Saddam’s intention to produce and use weapons of mass destruction would be found.

His comments were in stark contrast to remarks made yesterday by Hans Blix, the former United Nations chief weapons inspector in Iraq, who suggested the threat posed by Saddam had been "dramatised".

Dr Blix deliberately highlighted the claim made by the British government that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction it could deploy within 45 minutes.

He compared Mr Bush and Mr Blair to "the vendors of some merchandise" who are "trying to increase and exaggerate the importance of what they have".

However, he said he was not accusing the Prime Minister of acting in "bad faith".

"I have never said that I think Prime Minister Blair or President Bush were in bad faith. But I do see that how they express themselves has to do with information management."

But Dr Blix added: "From politicians, from our leaders in the West, I think we expected a bit more than that. A bit more sincerity."

During an interview with the BBC’s Breakfast with Frost programme, Dr Blix also challenged the UK and US to produce the evidence of weapons programmes they claim to have uncovered.

"Is there clear evidence that there were programmes? Maybe so. I don’t deny the possibility," he said.

"Can we show clearly that Saddam had intentions? He made some statements that seem to point in that direction. He made other statements that did not point in that direction."

Dr Blix said he would be willing to give evidence to the Butler Inquiry into the intelligence used by the government in the run up to the war in Iraq.

And he hinted he would blame the intelligence services for building up a false picture of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction because they had been too willing to believe false information from defectors from Saddam’s regime.

Meanwhile, a former British intelligence chief yesterday said the government’s Iraq arms dossier should have been written "exclusively" by experts without any interference from Downing Street.

Sir Paul Lever, the former chairman of the joint intelligence committee (JIC), said the dossier was "sloppy" in places, adding that things would have been done differently if he had been in charge.

"I personally would have preferred to have the JIC present something drafted exclusively by the JIC in the format which the JIC itself chose," he said.

Asked whether the dossier could have made it clear which weapons the 45-minute claim referred to, he replied: "I think that was perhaps a bit of sloppy drafting, yes."