Bush, Blair feel fresh heat on Iraq war

US President George W. Bush and his British ally Tony Blair felt renewed heat yesterday over their war on Iraq, with critics homing in on damaging leaks on both sides of the Atlantic.

The US Justice Department said it had opened an investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's identity allegedly to try to deflect criticism of the war, a case very similar to one that has shaken British Prime Minister Blair.

"I ask just one thing: attack my decision but at least understand why I took it and why I would take the same decision again," Mr Blair told delegates at his Labour Party's annual conference, referring to the decision to go to war.

The speech was designed to repair the damage done by the British leak of the identity of a government expert in Iraqi weapons of mass destruction who had anonymously questioned the handling of pre-war intelligence to a journalist. A judicial inquiry was launched after the expert committed suicide.

Mr Bush's spokesman said the White House had ordered staff to cooperate fully with the US investigation into what Justice Department lawyers termed "possible unauthorised disclosures concerning the identity of an undercover CIA employee".

The controversy centres on the disclosure that Valerie Plame - the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former US ambassador to Gabon - was an undercover CIA operative specialising in weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Wilson, a critic of pre-war intelligence on Iraq, says his wife's cover was blown by administration officials looking to discredit him.

The investigation is a further blow to Mr Bush as he seeks more help in tackling a guerilla insurgency in Iraq and shouldering the costs of rebuilding the country by drafting a new resolution for the United Nations Security Council to consider.

Mr Bush later called for anyone with information about those who disclosed the identity of a CIA official to come forward, saying: "I want to know the truth."

"If anybody's got any information inside our administration or outside our administration, it would be helpful if they came forward," Mr Bush told reporters after meeting with business leaders in Chicago. It was Mr Bush's first public comment on the controversy.

France and Germany have led calls for Washington to transfer power from US occupation forces to an Iraqi government within months as a condition for supporting a resolution in the Security Council.

Washington, which says the new draft could be ready within days, is trying to address their concerns with a roadmap for handing power to Iraqis.

But Iraqi officials said yesterday that a key prerequisite of self-rule, a constitution, would take much longer to draft than the six-month target Washington has suggested in a bid to win wider international backing.

Iraq's US-led administration said no deadline was being set on a constitution and a spokesman for outgoing Iraqi Governing Council chairman Ahmad Chalabi told a news conference six months was not enough time to write it.

Entifadh Qanbar, spokesman for Mr Chalabi who has held the rotating chairmanship of the 25-member US-backed Governing Council over the last month, said writing a constitution would take time, and power should be handed back to Iraqis beforehand.

"It would be useful if there is a sufficient time to discuss the constitution and to create a dialogue among the Iraqi people," he said. "This process will probably take more than six months... It may take a year to achieve this."

A committee charged with deciding how a constitution should be drawn up will hand its report to the Governing Council today, a day later than planned, officials said. The council will then choose between the options.

Divisions have opened up between the United States and some members of the Governing Council over how and when power should be handed back to Iraqis. Some say the Council should be formally recognised as a sovereign Iraqi government, even before a constitution is written and elections are held.