US 'distorted Saddam intelligence'

Spy chiefs were today facing accusations of "worldwide intelligence failures" over the case for war in Iraq.

A damning report by US senators is expected to lambast the intelligence that led to the conflict.

The American version of the Butler Inquiry is due to be published tonight. It will find the CIA distorted or misrepresented intelligence to conclude Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

The findings are the most damaging attack yet on the intelligence used to justify the war and will be a blow for President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Details of the report were leaked less than 24 hours after Mr Blair admitted for the first time that weapons of mass destruction may never be found in Iraq.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is expected to find that the CIA became an advocate of war, rather than an impartial adviser, giving President Bush only the information he wanted to hear.

Although it will find no evidence of direct political interference, it is expected to denounce US spy chiefs, whose conclusions on Iraq's arsenal have been thrown into doubt by the failure to find chemical or biological weapons in Iraq.

The chairman of the committee, Senator Pat Roberts, said the report will conclude that intelligence agencies worldwide were guilty of an "assumption train" about Saddam's arsenal. The findings will say that various Iraqi officials thought other Iraqi officials controlled weapons of mass destruction, and that there was evidence that Iraq was poised to become the "Grand Central Station" of trade in such weapons.

They will claim the September 11 terrorist attacks encouraged intelligence agencies to base their conclusions on incomplete information.

Mr Roberts said: "These conclusions literally beg for changes in the intelligence community. What

we had was a worldwide intelligence failure."

CIA director George Tenet has already resigned over criticism of the way he ran the agency. He is due to leave office on Sunday.

The row mirrors the debate in Britain over Tony Blair's dossiers which claimed that Iraq had unconventional weapons.

It comes as members of the Butler Inquiry, appointed to look into Britain's pre-war intelligence - enter their last day of talks today. MPs on the panel are expected to spend at least 10 hours in talks over their final report, to be published next week.

It is not yet known whether the US Senate will criticise M16 for its role in the debacle. Senators have been embroiled in a row with the CIA over how much of their findings can be published.

Mr Roberts revealed the CIA tried to censor more than half of the information in the 410-page report. The senators struck a deal to water down, or omit, some elements, but hope to make 80 per cent of the findings public.