The extract of a confidential note sent to Blair by attorney-general Lord Peter Goldsmith in March 2003, leaked to the British media, expressed some doubt as to whether a further UN resolution was needed to approve an invasion of Iraq.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was dispatched within hours of the revelations late on Wednesday to do a round of television interviews, in an effort to control political damage to Blair's Labour Party, which is seeking a third consecutive term.

Straw said Britain had nevertheless always wanted another resolution for political, if not legal, reasons.

Resolution preferred

"It was always preferable for there to be a second resolution, that was always our view, on political grounds, though not on legal grounds," he said.

Straw, trying to calm the public furore that erupted after the leak on Wednesday, told the BBC that between 7 and 17 March, "circumstances" changed, which affected Goldsmith's advice.He said new information had been presented in the interim to the UN Security Council detailing Iraq's breaches of past resolutions and that France had declared it would boycott a second resolution authorising military action.

British media linked the leak to the election campaign, with the rightwing Daily Express tabloid calling it "The big lie: final proof that Blair deceived the nation".Many others contrasted the affair with the prime minister's "I have never told a lie" declaration made only hours earlier.

AFP

Thursday 28th April 2005