Blix enters dossiers row

Prime Minister Tony Blair is facing mounting pressure over the Iraqi dossiers affair after he was accused of making a "fundamental mistake" in declaring that Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes.

Dr Hans Blix, the former United Nations chief weapons inspector, described the claim - included in the Government's September dossier - as "highly unlikely".

He told The Independent on Sunday: "I think that was a fundamental mistake. I don't know exactly how they calculated this figure of 45 minutes in the dossier of September last year. That seems pretty far off the mark to me."

Asked if Mr Blair had relied on flawed intelligence or misinterpreted it Dr Blix replied: "They over-interpreted the intelligence they had."

Downing Street declined to be drawn on Dr Blix's remarks, only reiterating its established line that No 10 stood by the September dossier.

Downing Street also sought to play down suggestions that the British and US governments were at loggerheads over a crucial intelligence issue relating to Iraq.

Suggestions of a bust-up between the CIA and Britain's MI6 were an embarrassment for Mr Blair ahead of his Thursday trip to Washington for talks with President Bush.

CIA director George Tenet has apologised for allowing President Bush to refer to an alleged Iraqi bid to buy uranium from the West African state of Niger in January's State of the Union address.

In his speech Mr Bush attributed the intelligence to Britain. Mr Tenet, the CIA Director, has said his agency should have warned the President off the Niger intelligence, since it doubted the British finding.

But while admitting that the CIA raised concerns about the Niger claim, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw defended the decision to include a claim that Saddam tried to acquire uranium from Niger in the September dossier. He insisted that that claim was based on separate, reliable intelligence which Britain had not shared with the US.

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