Blair faces Iraq flak as polls race heats up

The Liberal Democrat Party, which opposed the war, placed advertisements in newspapers showing a smiling Blair beside President Bush under the headline "Never Again."

"Britain's international reputation has been damaged by the way Tony Blair took us to war," party leader Charles Kennedy told a news conference. "Tony Blair says history will be his judge. He is wrong. The British people will be his judge."

Kennedy is due to call later on Monday for a public inquiry into Britain's decision to join the war.

Iraq rose to the top of the election agenda over the weekend, with the main opposition Conservative Party accusing Blair of lying over the war.

A Sunday newspaper claimed the government's top lawyer, before the 2003 invasion, gave six reasons why Blair might breach international law if he went to war without a second United Nations resolution. The Attorney General later ruled the invasion was legal, leading opponents to claim he had been put under pressure.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw fell short of explicitly denying the report.

"I'm not confirming what is alleged to have been in a leaked document," he told BBC Radio. "I'm simply not confirming it."

Conservative leader Michael Howard said Blair had overstated the "sporadic and patchy" intelligence gathered by Britain's intelligence services on whether Iraq had banned weapons.

Blair has repeatedly defended his decision to support Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq and has denied hyping the threat posed by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"I did what I honestly believe was the right thing to do," he said on Monday.

Blair tried to refocus debate on the eight years of solid economic growth Britain has enjoyed under his government, with a joint news conference with finance minister Gordon Brown.