US 'fixed' case for Iraq war to suit policy

Richard Dearlove, head of MI6, briefed Blair and a group of ministers on the United States' determination to launch the invasion nine months before hostilities began in March 2003, the Sunday Times reported, citing the BBC programme, which was aired yesterday.

After attending a briefing in Washington, he told the meeting that war was "inevitable", according to the weekly newspaper.

"The facts and intelligence" were being "fixed round the policy" by US President George W. Bush's administration, Dearlove said.

The allegations against Blair just weeks before an expected general election are likely to reopen a feud between the government and the British broadcaster.

The two fell out last year over allegations by a BBC reporter that Britain "sexed up" the case for war.

The documentary argues that Blair had signed up to follow Bush's plans for regime change in Iraq as early as April 2002, The Sunday Times said.

Robin Cook, Britain's former foreign secretary who resigned as leader of the House of Commons over Iraq, claimed that the threat of weapons of mass destruction was not the prime minister's true reason for going to war.

"What was propelling the prime minister was a determination that he would be the closest ally to George Bush and they would prove to the United States administration that Britain was their closest ally," Cook tells the programme.