Iraq inquiry sets Blair date

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair will give long-awaited testimony to Britain's Iraq war inquiry next week, officials said yesterday, as one of his former aides robustly defended his conduct.

Mr Blair, who backed the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite strong opposition at home and in the UN, will face a full day of questioning on January 29 at the Chilcot inquiry.

The former premier is the star witness at the inquiry, which was launched in November after virtually all of Britain's forces withdrew in June 2009.

Last month Mr Blair admitted in a TV interview that he would have backed the war even if he knew Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction (WMD), triggering fresh criticism.

Mr Blair, who quit as premier in 2007 and is now the Middle East Quartet's envoy, told the BBC it would "still have been right to remove" Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein because of the threat he posed to the region.

Interest in Mr Blair's appearance at the inquiry is intense: a public ballot was held yesterday for public seats at the hearings, and the lucky few will be allowed into either the morning or afternoon sessions. Mr Blair supported US President George W. Bush over the 2003 invasion, but faced a major backlash in Britain which contributed to his decision to step down in June 2007, despite having led his Labour party to three election wins.

In his evidence yesterday, Mr Blair's chief of staff at the time, Jonathan Powell, robustly defended the former Prime Minister's conduct.

He insisted that despite a long-standing dislike of Saddam Hussein and a firm belief that he had weapons of mass des-truction (WMD), Mr Blair had been committed to dealing with him through the UN.