LONDON, Sept 10: Pressure on Britain’s defence secretary to resign grew on Wednesday over allegations he had misled an investigation into Prime Minister Tony Blair’s case for onvasion of Iraq.

London’s Evening Standard newspaper said parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) had determined Geoff Hoon had falsely denied that intelligence analysts expressed unease over Britain’s dossier on Iraqi banned weapons.

Political observers have already singled out Mr Hoon as the most senior of the likely victims of a row over intelligence that has severely dented Mr Blair’s electoral ratings.

Tony Blair used the Sept 2002 dossier on Iraq’s alleged chemical and biological weapons to win over sceptical Britons to the need for military action. But five months after Saddam Hussein’s overthrow, no such weapons have been found in Iraq.

The ISC report will be published on Thursday and comes amid a separate judicial inquiry that has plunged Mr Blair into the biggest crisis of his six-year rule.

The Hutton inquiry has already revealed that at least two Defence Intelligence officials were unhappy with warnings in the Iraq dossier, particularly the dramatic claim that Iraq could deploy chemical or biological weapons at just 45 minutes’ notice.

The Standard said Hoon was advised by a senior civil servant to tell the ISC in July that concerns were “fully aired” before the claims were put in the dossier. Instead the paper said he flatly denied any doubts had been expressed.

Hoon’s action was “misleading” and “unhelpful”, the paper quoted the ISC’s report as saying.

The paper added that the ISC report would say the 45-minute claim should never have been inserted in the dossier, but would clear Mr Blair’s media chief Alastair Campbell of accusations that he “sexed up” the document to win over opponents of war.

But the leaked ISC report also triggered furious accusations that Mr Blair’s aides were using Hoon as a fall-guy to deflect criticism of the prime minister and intelligence services.

Opposition Conservatives said Wednesday’s leak — a day after the ISC report was handed to Downing Street — proved that despite “spin doctor” Mr Campbell’s high-profile resignation last month Mr Blair was still addicted to media manipulation.

“Senior Downing Street officials are already spinning their version of the leaked report,” Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith told parliament.—Reuters