25 January 2004	Sunday	02 Zilhaj 1424

LONDON, Jan 24: Britain's opposition Conservatives called on Saturday for a public inquiry about the British decision to join the invasion of Iraq following the resignation of the top US official charged with tracking down Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

The resignation of David Kay "raises very serious questions about Prime Minister (Tony Blair) and indeed why he told us what he did last year, both before and after the war about weapons of mass destruction", said Michael Ancram, the Conservative party's spokesman for foreign affairs.

"It is why ever since last May I have been calling for a public judicial inquiry because I think it is absolutely essential to know on what basis he made those claims," he said in an interview with BBC radio.

Also speaking on BBC radio, the former Labour foreign minister Robin Cook called on Mr Blair to admit that Britain had been mistaken in its evaluation of Iraq's weapons capability.

"I think it is very important that Tony Blair does concede that there were mistakes made, maybe in all good faith," said Mr Cook, who resigned as leader of the House of Commons in protest at the government's decision to support the US invasion without a United Nations mandate.

"It is becoming really rather undignified for the prime minister (Blair) to continue to insist that he was right all along when everybody can now see he was wrong, when even the head of the Iraq Survey Group has said he was wrong," Mr Cook added.

He charged that Mr Blair was driven by a "missionary zeal" and "evangelical certainty" in his pro-invasion campaign.

Mr Blair's office was "keen to get in to impress President Bush that they were a reliable ally. That is not a good basis on which to run British foreign policy," charged Mr Cook, who served as foreign minister under Mr Blair from 1997 to 2001. -AFP