Iraq intelligence rift clouds Blair's US trip

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, facing growing criticism over his case for war with Iraq, heads for a meeting with brother-in-arms George W. Bush today clouded by an embarrassing rift over intelligence.

Mr Blair said yesterday he stood behind Britain's pre-war allegation that Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy uranium from Africa to revive a nuclear bomb programme - a charge President Bush aides have publicly disowned.

He also said a controversial British dossier, which set out the uranium charges and said Iraq could unleash chemical and biological weapons at 45 minutes' notice, was accurate.

"I do not accept that people were misled at all. I stand entirely by what was in the dossier," Blair told parliament. "I happen to believe we still did the right thing."

President Bush and Mr Blair, who sent over 250,000 troops to invade Iraq and topple Saddam in March, based their case for war on his alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Both men have been accused of manipulating intelligence to justify attacking Iraq - a charge they have angrily denied.

But three months after Saddam's overthrow, no weapons have been found in Iraq and a senior British official told Reuters last week it would be "extremely difficult" to uncover weapons which could prove their case.

In another setback to Mr Blair's justification for joining US military action, the United States said last week its claim Iraq sought uranium from Niger in northwest Africa was based on forged documents.

Britain has stood by its own allegations, saying they were based on intelligence from a third country which it could not share with its chief ally or the UN nuclear watchdog body, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Mr Blair, who has put transatlantic relations at the heart of his foreign policy, faces a major test of his strategy as the United States prepares to send two British terror suspects for military trial and a possible death penalty.

Britain opposes capital punishment and a government spokesman said this week the two countries were discussing several options including repatriation of the men, who are being held in a military prison in Guantanamo Bay.