Bush: WMD intelligence was at fault

George Bush piled fresh pressure on Tony Blair today after the President conceded for the first time that intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was faulty.

In a rare hour-long interview for American TV, Mr Bush described Saddam Hussein as a madman and insisted he had been a "direct threat" to the US.

But he added that there was no such thing as "iron-clad, absolutely solid intelligence".

Mr Bush said: "We thought he had weapons. The international community thought he had weapons. But he had the capacity to make a weapon and then let that weapon fall into the hands of a shadowy terrorist network."

Critics of Mr Blair at Westminster and beyond were quick to seize on the change.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said: "I think the Prime Minister himself has got to come back to the House of Commons and make a statement clarifying once and for all exactly who knew what, on what basis, and at what time."

The admission from the President, on NBC's Meet the Press, coincided with an onslaught from the former UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix.

Dr Blix yesterday accused the Prime Minister and the President of hyping up the available intelligence on the Iraqi threat like a pair of salesmen. He said he was ready to give evidence to the inquiry announced last week, headed by Lord Butler, into the accuracy and the use made of intelligence in the run-up to war.

Dr Blix criticised the way the claim that part of Iraq's arsenal could be deployed in 45 minutes had failed to spell out which weapons were involved. "The intention was to dramatise it, just as the vendors of some merchandise are trying to increase and exaggerate the importance of what they have," he told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost.

"From politicians, from our leaders, in the West, I think we expect more than that ... a bit more sincerity."

Mr Blair and senior ministers were preparing a determined attempt this week to focus attention on the domestic agenda.

But the Prime Minister was under continued pressure over his disclosure last week that he had not known before the war that the 45-minute claim referred only to shortrange battlefield weapons.

Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said that if intelligence chiefs had failed to make that clear at the top level of government, they should all resign. He described the affair as "an appalling failure of communication".

Mr Cook added: "Frankly, if the Butler committee decides that was indeed the case, I think the Joint Intelligence Committee as a whole would have to go because how could the Prime Minister possibly have confidence in them after they failed to show him the information they had, the information he really needed to have?"