Cook attacks Blair's 'palpably absurd' war justification

"In March Tony Blair dismissed the claim that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction as "palpably absurd". This week it was admitted that his government now accepts that claim is true," Cook wrote in The Independent daily newspaper.

"It is the justification for war that begins to look 'palpably absurd'," said Cook -- who quit the government over its decision to join the US-led war in Iraq.

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Cook's comments came after Blair insisted Thursday that proof of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction would be unearthed, as the furore over the run-up to the US-led war raged on.

"We were assured that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and he had some ready for use in the next 45 minutes," Cook said.

"If we are told that those assurances are now... inoperative, then the need for urgency crumbles and the case for war that was built upon it collapses. No weapons of mass destruction, no justification for war," Cook said.

There is considerable doubt in London and Washington over the strength of the US and British case for ending UN arms inspections and launching the March 20 invasion to topple the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"I predict that we will soon see determined efforts to shift the justification for war to regime change rather than disarmament," Cook said.

"This was a war made in Washington, pushed by a handful of neo-conservatives and pursued for reasons of US foreign strategy and domestic politics."