Bush-Blair go on defensive for failing to produce WMDs
AFP, Baghdad
US and British leaders were forced onto the defensive Monday over the failure to produce weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as food rations were distributed in the country for the first time since Saddam Hussein was toppled. While leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised powers sought to put Iraq tensions behind them at their summit in France, pressure mounted on the US and British governments over the lack of weapons evidence. Washington and London used accusations that Iraq was secretly developing chemical and biological weapons as the main justification to launch the war on Saddam. But critics have said intelligence evidence was deliberately twisted to whip up support for an invasion. British Prime Minister Tony Blair angrily denied the suggestions at the G8 summit in the French resort of Evian. "The idea that we doctored intelligence reports in order to invent some notion about a 45-minute capability of delivering weapons of mass destruction is completely and totally false," Blair told reporters. US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Rome: "There were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It wasn't a figment of anyone's imagination." In Russia, which opposed the war, a top official urged the United States to quickly clear up the issue. "This should not be allowed to be dragged out," said Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov. Top US lawmakers said they would investigate whether Washington officials exaggerated claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
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