Blair: we may never find WMDs

Tony Blair finally admitted today that weapons of mass destruction may never be found in Iraq - but he flatly refused to say sorry for the war.

"I was very, very confident we would find them," he said during a grilling by senior MPs in the House of Commons. "I have to accept that we have not found them and we may not find them.

"He may have removed or hidden or even destroyed those weapons. We don't know."

In a clear sign that he will come out fighting when Lord Butler reports next Wednesday, Mr Blair insisted that the invasion was fully justified and legal, and branded Saddam an "evil person" whom the world was well rid of.

He claimed Saddam had still breached United Nations' resolutions even if no actual arms were found, because Saddam was a proven threat "to his region and the wider world". Mr Blair used a new phrase to describe

the danger, saying Saddam was "a threat in WMD terms" because he had the "intent" to develop such arms.

That was in stark contrast to his words as recently as January when he said in an interview: "I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the intelligence was genuine."

Mr Blair appeared to blame the intelligence services for the original charges that Saddam had stockpiles of illegal weapons on standby for use.

He told the MPs that "all the evidence and intelligence" pointed to their existence-But he insisted: "It is very important-not to go to the other extreme and say because we have not found stockpiles of WMD therefore he was not a threat." Saddam "had the strategic capability to be a threat" and was "in multiple breach of UN resolutions".

The Prime Minister denied regime change was the motive for the war, but admitted he believed "it is good that we got rid of Saddam Hussein".

Challenged by Tory MP Edward Leigh to issue a partial apology for the war, he said: "I strongly believe he was a threat in relation to WMD. Even if it was a threat that was different, in a sense ... I still believe it was justified in those terms as well."