Blair hit by fresh allegations over Iraq

Tony Blair was hit by fresh allegations today that Downing Street manipulated the legal advice in order "to rush" Britain into the Iraq war.

A new book claims the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith warned less than two weeks before the invasion that military action could be illegal.

It says Lord Goldsmith never wrote an unequivocal legal opinion saying the war was lawful. It alleges the crucial Parliamentary answer eventually setting out the legal justification for the invasion was drawn up not by the Attorney General's chambers, but in Downing Street.

The disclosures are contained in the book Lawless World by Phillipe Sands, a QC in Cherie Booth's Matrix chambers and a professor of international law at University College, London.

Mr Sands says Lord Goldsmith-warned Mr Blair on 7 March 2003 that the use of force against Iraq was possibly illegal and it would be safer to have a second UN resolution.

The book says: "So concerned was the Government about the possibility of such a case that it took steps to put together a legal team to prepare for possible international litigation." Lord Goldsmith's advice has never been published by the Government. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, recently announced it would not be made available under the Freedom of Information Act.

The revelations came as The Guardian published extracts from the resignation letter by Elizabeth Wilmshurst, the deputy legal adviser at the Foreign Office.

In her letter, Ms Wilmshurst said the planned invasion of Iraq was a "crime of aggression". She said she could not agree to military action in circumstances "so detrimental to the international order and the rule of law".

Former foreign secretary Robin Cook said there was now an overwhelming case for the Attorney General's advice to be published. "What was served up to Parliament as the view of the Attorney General turned out to be the view of two of the closest aides of the Prime Minister," he told the Guardian.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said the Government's justification for war had been seriously undermined.

He said: "The substance of the Attorney General's advice, and the process by which it was partially published simply do not stand up to scrutiny."