Britain: Claims that a crucial dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction was distorted by the office of the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, led to calls yesterday for a parliamentary inquiry.
In the dossier - published in September as the UN wrangled over whether to send weapons inspectors into Iraq - Mr Blair warned that the dictator could launch chemical or biological attacks within 45 minutes.
However, the BBC yesterday quoted an unnamed "senior British official" as saying that this was one in a series of unreliable claims included in the dossier against the wishes of intelligence officers, who had been ordered by 10 Downing Street to "sex up" a draft version of the document.
"Most people in intelligence weren't happy with the dossier because it didn't reflect the considered view they were putting forward," he said.
Downing Street flatly denied that pressure had been put on officers to shape the document to Number 10's requirements.
"Not one word of the dossier was not entirely the work of the intelligence agencies," said a spokesman.
"Any suggestions that any pressure was put on the intelligence services by Number 10 or anyone else are entirely false."
The 50-page document, drawing on intelligence material from MI6, Britain's overseas intelligence agency, MI5, its internal agency, and GCHQ, the electronic global surveillance agency in Cheltenham, outlined Iraq's attempts to acquire nuclear weapons and to develop long-range ballistic missiles capable of hitting Israel or British bases in Cyprus.
It was used by Mr Blair as ammunition in his effort to convince parliament and the British people that it was essential to disarm Iraq, by force if necessary.
According to the BBC, the unnamed senior British official said the dossier was "transformed" in the week before it was published to make it "sexier".
He said: "The classic example was the statement that weapons of mass destruction were ready for use within 45 minutes.
"That information was not in the original draft. It was included in the dossier against our wishes because it wasn't reliable.
"Most things in the dossier were double source, but that was single source and we believe that the source was wrong."
Veteran Labour MP Mr Tam Dalyell, a persistent opponent of the war with Iraq, called on Mr Blair to make a Commons statement on the claims.
The Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Menzies Campbell, called for a special MPs' committee to be set up to investigate into the claims.
"If this truly was an embellishment by Number 10, it turned intelligence into propaganda," he said.
"This may well be a case for a special select committee investigation in view of the significance of these claims."
The Defence Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, acknowledged that the 45-minute claim was based on an uncorroborated single source.
However, he insisted the report was based on the best available intelligence, and was fully supported by the intelligence services.
"The whole world knew what Saddam Hussein was up to in terms of weapons of mass destruction. That's why we prosecuted that war. That's why we were right," he said.