PM under pressure after CIA revelation

Prime Minister Tony Blair is coming under increased pressure over the Iraq war, after the head of the CIA said Saddam Hussein posed "no imminent threat" in the months before last year's invasion.

George Tenet's assessment was described as a "body blow to the Government's case for war" by Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell.

It came as Tory leader Michael Howard called for Mr Blair to resign as Prime Minister over his admission that he had not known that claims Iraqi weapons of mass destruction could be fired in 45 minutes referred only to battlefield munitions.

The CIA director's comments appeared to form part of an effort by secret services to fend off blame in inquiries, on both sides of the Atlantic, into intelligence failings over Iraqi WMD.

President George W Bush has named Republican senator John McCain to head the US inquiry into intelligence on Iraq in the run-up to war. Former Cabinet Secretary Lord Butler is chairing a panel of five doing the same in the UK.

Mr Tenet told an audience at Georgetown University, in Washington, that the CIA "never said there was an imminent threat" from Saddam.

But he said Saddam was working on biological and chemicals weapons programmes and pursuing the nuclear bomb.

Liberal Democrats, who opposed last year's war, leapt on his comments as an indication that UN weapons inspector Hans Blix could have been given more time to disarm Saddam.

Sir Menzies said that "the wheels are coming off" the Government's justification for war, based on Mr Blair's claim that Iraqi WMD posed "a current and serious threat".

"Labour simply can't find a way to put this story to bed," he said. "Nearly 12 months after we went to war the Government's case has never seemed weaker."

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