WASHINGTON, June 25: A senior US senator called on Tuesday for a full-fledged congressional investigation into possible US intelligence failures or distortions leading up to the invasion of Iraq.

Senator Robert Byrd, one of the most outspoken critics of US policy in Iraq, rejected as inadequate closed door intelligence reviews currently underway in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Mr Byrd, who called for public hearings, also accused the White House of “revising history” as it seeks to explain the failure of US troops in Iraq to uncover alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

“We have heard a lot about revisionist history from the White House of late in answer to those who question whether there was a real threat from Iraq. But it is the president who appears to me to be intent on revising history,” he said.

“Seven weeks after declaring victory in the war against Iraq, we have seen nary a shred of evidence to support his claims of grave dangers, chemical weapons, links to Al Qaeda or nuclear weapons,” the senator said.

Another senator urged the White House to prepare the public for a very long commitment in Iraq until the country is self-governing.

“It’s going to take a very long time, in my view, to stand them up,” said Senator Joseph Biden, adding that officials in President George Bush’s administration still appear not to have fully grasped the enormity of the task ahead in rebuilding the country.

“There’s a significant gap between expectations and reality in the administration,” he said.

Robert Byrd, calling for an investigation, said “Congress should begin an immediate investigation into the intelligence that was presented to the American people about the pre-war estimates of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction and the way in which that intelligence might have been misused.

“Although some timorous steps have been taken in the past few days to begin a review of this intelligence ... the proposed measures fall short of what the situation requires,” said Byrd.

“For the first time, the United States has gone to war because of intelligence reports claiming that a country posed a threat to our nation,” the West Virginia Democrat said.

“Congress should not be content to use standard operating procedures to look into this extraordinary matter,” he said.

“We should accept no substitute for a full, bipartisan investigation by Congress into the issues of our pre-war intelligence on the threat from Iraq and its use, said Byrd, who has served in Congress for half a century and is the Senate’s most senior member.

The House and Senate Intelligence Committees last week began closed door reviews into the fate of alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and whether intelligence information about them had been manipulated to justify the war against the government of Saddam Hussein.

The conservative southern Democrat has become an unlikely hero of anti-war and anti-occupation forces who have e-mailed copies of his florid tirades decrying the invasion and Washington’s management of Iraq.

“Congress has the obligation to investigate the use of intelligence information by the administration in the open,” Byrd said. “We must not go down the road of coverup. That is the road to ruin.”

BIDEN: In his statement, Senator Biden, who travelled to Iraq with two other senators, said there was broad agreement among the three about the magnitude of the problems facing US forces in Iraq. “We’re all pretty much singing from the same hymnal,” he said.

“The administration went into the process with, quite frankly, the wrong assumptions,” Mr Biden continued, saying that US officials were caught flat-footed by the absence in Iraq of a functioning bureaucracy, army and police force, as well as the extent of deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s neglect of the country’s power grid and other infrastructure.

“The result has been massive problems in terms of getting basic services back and restoring security.”—AFP