Blair caves in over WMDs

Tony Blair today surrendered to his critics and agreed to hold a full inquiry into the failure to uncover weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Downing Street signalled an official announcement "soon" - after months of rejecting calls for an investigation.

The dramatic climbdown came as:

President George Bush gave in to pressure from his critics and announced a major Washington inquiry into the non-appearance of WMD.

Parliament's foreign affairs committee said the coalition had "lost credibility" over the failure to find weapons, and may have increased the risk of terror strikes.

Tory leader Michael Howard demanded a meeting between Mr Blair and Opposition leaders to decide how the inquiry should be carried out.

Downing Street said the change of heart had come about because the Hutton report had fully cleared ministers of wrongdoing over the use of intelligence material in the run-up to the war. It was now time to address the "perfectly valid question" of what had happened to Saddam Hussein's WMD, the Prime Minister's official spokesman added.

He said Mr Blair was ready to make a fullscale announcement to MPs - possibly as early as today - but gave no more details.

Up to now, the Prime Minister and his senior colleagues have said all queries about WMD should wait until the Iraqi Survey Group had finished its investigation on the ground. Over the weekend, however, as news of the Washington inquiry emerged, the Government line was hurriedly changed. No10 acknowledged it had been "keeping in close touch" with the Bush administration over the issue.