Cook challenges UK's Iraq dossiers

Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has been on the defensive over two dossiers, published in September and early this year. The government has acknowledged that the second document included material from a student thesis lifted from the Internet.

There has also been controversy over the government's claim that Iraqi plans called for some chemical and biological weapons to be deployed within 45 minutes of an order.

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"It is important, amid all this coverage, to realize that the contents of that dossier - and, indeed, of the first dossier which I presented to the House - are accurate," Blair told the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Cook, in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio, disagreed.

"For me, the real issue is that we were told things as a justification for war which have plainly turned out to be wrong since the war was over," Cook said.

"The 45-minute readiness of weapons of mass destruction, the fact that Saddam had rebuilt production facilities for chemical weapons, which we can't find, although they were supposed to be big factories.

"That he had a nuclear weapons program, which we can't find, although that would have involved a big industrial site.

"That he was buying uranium from Africa, which we now know was based on forged documents.

"All of those were in the September dossier, all of them were wrong," Cook said.

"I am rather puzzled and rather worried that the prime minister and (his communications director) Alastair Campbell continue to describe that document as accurate. It plainly was not accurate."