Blair U-turn may hit election chances

A full-scale inquiry into the failure to find Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was today conceded by Tony Blair.

The move is a major U-turn by the Government. It opens the way to the full investigation of the reasons Britain went to war, long demanded by the critics and refused by the Prime Minister.

Downing Street said there would be an announcement "shortly".

However the Prime Minister's spokesman refused to be drawn on the detail.

There were suggestions Mr Blair had been bounced into action by a decision by President Bush, also under heavy pressure, to concede a similar inquiry in Washington.

Ministers had been hoping to lay responsibility on the intelligence services for providing information of arms stockpiles which was accepted in good faith by the Government.

But the new investigation, launched days after the Hutton Inquiry report, opens a whole new area of hazard for Mr Blair.

The risks for Mr Blair were highlighted by a strongly critical report this afternoon from the Commons foreign affairs committee.

In a damning verdict they said that the "continued failure" to find weapons of mass destruction "has damaged the credibility of the US and the United Kingdom".

Their report warns that the war in Iraq may have "made terrorist attacks against British nationals and British interests more likely in the short term".

The committee said British and US forces in Iraq were now facing "a dangerous alliance of foreign fighters with terrorist allegiances and elements of the former Iraqi regime".

It said that British troops were likely to be required in Iraq "for some time to come, possibly for several years".

In justifying the about-turn on an investigation into WMD, No10 claimed that the Hutton verdict, and the way it had cleared the Government, had opened the way for a broader inquiry.

Asked why Mr Blair, firmly against a wider investigation until now, had changed tack, the No10 spokesman replied: "What's different between last week and this is that the Hutton report, like the Commons foreign affairs report and like the Intelligence and Security Committee report, has cleared the Government of allegations of having politically interfered with, falsified or hyped the intelligence on WMD.

"That allows us to address - hopefully in a more rational way, a more rational context - the perfectly valid questions that people have asked

about WMD." Tory leader Michael Howard called on Mr Blair to hold talks with him and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy on the scope of the inquiry and who should head it.

The Downing Street spokesman said No10 was "coming close to announcing how we will approach these questions" but said details would be given by Mr Blair to Parliament-There were suggestions that the investigation could follow the lines of the United States' inquiry, which is expected to be carried out by a nine-strong team including Republicans, Democrats and outside experts.

After Lord Hutton's inquiry was branded a whitewash by critics, Mr Blair could face difficulties if he appoints a top legal figure to head the new investigation, particularly if he makes his choice without consulting the Opposition.

As recently as last Friday, Downing Street was saying that an inquiry into WMD would not even be considered until after the Iraq Survey Group, still hunting for Saddam Hussein's weapons arsenal, had completed its work.

Over the weekend, as news of the Washington inquiry emerged, the government line was hurriedly changed. No 10 acknowledged that it had been "keeping in close touch" with the Bush administration over the issue.

The Washington inquiry is not set to report back until next year, after the US presidential election is over. But the US findings could damage Mr Blair in the months before he faces his own re-election contest.

One of the Prime Minister's difficulties is, unlike President Bush, he based almost his entire case on the threat from Saddam's arsenal of biological and chemical weapons.

Mr Blair will tomorrow face three hours of questions from MPs in the latest of his appearances before the Commons liaison committee.

On Wednesday there will be a Commons debate on the Hutton report into the circumstances leading up to the death of weapons expert David Kelly.

President Bush, meanwhile, faced growing political pressure to widen his inquiry. Senior Democrats say the probe must also look at the role of the White House and CIA in using intelligence reports as a justification for going to war with Saddam.

Senator Trent Lott said: "There's no question that there was an intelligence failure in some form or another. What I want to know is, what happened? Why wasn't it more reliable? Why wasn't it more accurate?''