US House rejects attempts to broaden WMD inquiries

Those efforts were made in the form of amendments offered as part of a funding bill for intelligence matters for the coming fiscal year.

The amendments were proposed by two liberal Democratic representatives: Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas. Lee's amendment would have forced a review of intelligence shared by Washington with the United Nations about Iraqi weapons.

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Kucinich's amendment would have required a review of review of phone and email contacts between the Central Intelligence Agency and Vice President Dick Cheney on the issue of Iraqi weapons. Both measures were defeated overwhelmingly.

The House and Senate Intelligence committees and the Senate's Armed Services committee already have begun closed hearings into whether US pre-war intelligence on Iraq's weapons program was hyped to make the threat seem greater than it actually was.

Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction program was the main reason given by the White House to justify deposing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.