BRITAIN: Mr Michael Howard and Mr Tony Blair clashed bitterly in the Commons yesterday as the Conservative leader accused the Prime Minister of "misrepresenting" the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq.
And Liberal Democrat leader Mr Charles Kennedy landed a blow on Mr Blair, pressing him over whether he had promised the United States government he would support "regime change" in Iraq - and thus "an illegal war" - a full year before the conflict began.
During their recent party conferences Mr Howard and Mr Blair signalled their enthusiasm to join battle on Britain's domestic political agenda. Yet it was the war in Iraq which dominated the first session of Prime Minister's Questions in what is presumed to be the pre-election parliamentary session.
And Labour as well as Conservative backbenchers joined the attack on Mr Blair following last week's report from the Iraq Survey Group confirming that Saddam Hussein had no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Blair was in defiant form as he further amended his "apology" for intelligence about Iraqi weaponry which proved to have been wrong.
"I take full responsibility and apologise for any information given in good faith that has subsequently turned out to be wrong," he told MPs.
However, he rejected Mr Howard's charge that he had "not accurately" reported the nature of the intelligence. In turn accusing the Conservative leader of "playing politics" with the issue, Mr Blair declared: "I will not apologise for removing Saddam Hussein. I will not apologise for the conflict. I believe it was right then, is right now and essential for the wider security of that region and the world."
Confirming that he still supported the war, Mr Howard insisted he had not asked Mr Blair to apologise for the conflict.
"I asked you very specifically about the way you misrepresented the intelligence you received to the country. Why can't you bring yourself to say sorry for that?" he demanded, while suggesting Mr Blair would not be able "to move on" until he did so.
Mr Blair replied: "I cannot bring myself to say that I misrepresented the evidence, since I don't accept that I did." Mr Blair added: "It is correct that some of the evidence, not all of it, has subsequently turned out to be wrong. That is a very different matter to deceiving this House, and I hope you will withdraw that allegation."
Mr Kennedy challenged Mr Blair about his former foreign policy adviser Sir David Manning telling the US in March 2002, a year before the war, that the prime minister "would not budge in his support for regime change".
Mr Blair maintained there was no inconsistency, and that he had always allowed that regime change itself would become an issue if Saddam remained in defiance of UN Resolutions.
And he told Mr Kennedy: "It was a difficult decision; I took the choice, I stand by it. But if you had your way, Saddam Hussein and his sons would still be running Iraq."