New pressure on Blair

Tony Blair was today under fresh challenge on Iraq after the revelation that he defied intelligence warnings that war would heighten the risk of terror attacks on Britain.

The Prime Minister now faces mass revolt from his party at Labour's annual conference in two weeks. Anti-war feeling - already running high - was given a massive push by yesterday's report from the Commons intelligence and security committee.

The report disclosed that the chiefs of the security services told Mr Blair a month before the invasion that, rather than Saddam, al Qaeda and its associated terror groups "continued to represent by far the greatest threat to Western interests." And they went on "that threat would be heightened by military action against Iraq".

Mr Blair was today under heavy fire for defying that message - and for failing to reveal the top-level doubts during the run-up to war.

Robin Cook, who resigned from the Cabinet over the decision to attack Iraq said he could not recall being told about such warnings while a Minister. Liberal Democrat Defence spokesman Paul Keetch said that if MPs had known of the Joint Intelligence Committee's concerns it was "highly questionable" if Mr Blair would have won the vote on military action.

This week's TUC conference saw calls for the Prime Minister to resign over the war. Mr Blair now faces the embarrassment of similar demands from his own party.

The Prime Minister will go to the conference with the Hutton Inquiry into the death of weapons expert David Kelly still hanging over him.

An intense behind-the-scenes effort is already under way in Downing Street to limit the damage at Labour's Bournemouth conference.

The leadership was able to avoid defeat last year by promising it would make every effort to win United Nations backing before any military action was begun.

That effort failed - as everyone heading for this year's conference knows. And this year's bid to avoid defeat looks much more difficult.