Inquiry options for PM Blair

Prime Minister Tony Blair now seems certain to order some sort of inquiry into the apparent intelligence shortcomings revealed by the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

But he is not bound to follow President George Bush's example and set up a cross-party commission headed by a senior legal figure which will take months to gather evidence and report.

While it may be in the White House's political interests to stave off any conclusions on the issue until next year - after the presidential elections in November - Mr Blair faces the opposite problem.

He may want to call an election next spring, four years after his 2001 victory, and would want the issue dealt with before then.

And while CIA officials are used to testifying before Senate hearings, members of MI6 are not used to talking openly to MPs.

These are some of Mr Blair's options:

  • An inquiry headed by a judge taking evidence largely in secret from senior figures within the intelligence world, and even some agents, asking just where they got the information that was passed on eventually to Downing Street and questioning how it was assessed.

  • A probe by the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee made up of senior cross-party figures used to dealing with intelligence matters. They are tasked by the premier and report solely to him. Intelligence agencies are used to giving evidence in secret to the ISC, whose reports are routinely published with sections blacked out.

  • An inquiry by the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee John Scarlett into how the material gathered and presented to him, and then by him to No 10, appeared to give a false picture. This might then be followed by an ISC inquiry into how the JIC should be reformed.

  • Asking a specially-formed, cross-party committee to undertake the task. This would be the closest parallel to the proposed US inquiry.

    Tory leader Michael Howard and the Liberal Democrats' Charles Kennedy would be asked to nominate senior MPs or peers from within their ranks to serve on an inquiry panel headed by a serving or retired judge alongside senior Labour figures.

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