Blair: I did the right thing

A defiant Tony Blair today refused point-blank to apologise in the row over the war in Iraq, saying: "I think we made the right case and did the right thing."

In what could prove to be a significant retreat, he said he believed the search operation in Iraq would uncover evidence of weapons of mass destruction "programmes" - rather than the weapons themselves.

The Prime Minister faced his most detailed grilling yet on Iraq in his twice-yearly appearance before an array of senior MPs in the Commons.

In the course of an 80-minute cross-examination he:

Mr Blair said there had been "massive" parliamentary debate as well as a decisive vote and "Cabinet meeting after Cabinet meeting" to discuss the issue.

"The idea I got together a couple of people in the office over a cup of coffee and decided to take the country to war is somewhat overstretched, if I may respectfully say so," he said.

Mr Blair, in shirt sleeves, was never pushed into real trouble by the questioning. He was several times forced on to the defensive, however, when asked why no chemical or biological weapons or their components had been found.

The intelligence to the Government last year "I have no doubt at all was valid", the Prime Minister said.

Iraqi scientists were now being questioned by the newly created search teams "and I am very confident they will find the evidence that the programmes existed". Despite his robust defence, Mr Blair faced continued demands from both the Tories and Liberal Democrats for a full independent inquiry headed by a senior judge into the decision to go to war.

The latest opinion poll by Populus for The Times showed support for the war plummeting, with 47per cent believing it was right to take military action, down 11 points on a month ago.

More seriously for the Prime Minister, a clear majority of the voters, 54 per cent, said they "wouldn't trust him further than I could throw him" with just over 40 per cent disagreeing. Mr Blair, however, told the MPs: "I refute any suggestion that we misled either Parliament or the people totally.

"The fact is that we put before the House of Commons and, indeed, the country, the case that we made. I stand by that case totally.

"I'm quite sure we did the right thing in removing Saddam Hussein. Not merely was he a threat to his region, to the wider world, but it was an appalling regime that the world is well rid of."

The Prime Minister went on, however, to say that he had hoped until the final weeks that conflict could be avoided.

He said he had told President Bush that if Saddam complied with the UN demand to surrender his weaponry "he would have to take Yes for an answer". The President had accepted that.

The Prime Minister acknowledged that British troops could be in Iraq for years, but said the presence would be much smaller.

Meanwhile, BBC director-general Greg Dyke today called for both sides in the Iraq dossier row to "agree to disagree and move on". At the annual Radio Festival in Birmingham, the BBC chief told delegates he hoped he had seen the last newspaper reports on the issue.

He told them: "Whatever the background of Alastair Campbell's attack on the BBC, to criticise the reputation of all BBC journalists by publicly accusing us of lying and bias is not acceptable. I thank him for stepping back from that position yesterday."