LONDON, June 27: Britain’s government, parliament and public broadcaster clashed on Friday over claims that Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office talked up the threat posed by Iraq to justify launching an unpopular invasion.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, in his second such grilling by a parliamentary committee, said ousting President Saddam Hussein was justified — even if the very Iraqi weapons of mass destruction used as a pretext to battle were never found.

“Whether or not we do (find them), the decision to take military action was justified on March 18 on the basis of perfectly public information,” Straw told parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, which is investigating the case for war.

The failure to discover any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — the primary British justification for war — has undermined Blair’s credibility and renewed accusations of a government that cares more about message than meaning.

The row escalated after the British Broadcasting Corporation, citing an intelligence source, accused Alastair Campbell, Blair’s communications supremo, of “sexing up” a September dossier on Iraq’s weapons.

Parliamentarians are furious at the idea they may have backed a war the voters did not want on a false premise. Straw angered them further on Friday by refusing access to an intelligence chief or key documents for their investigation.

The BBC’s source said Campbell had inserted a claim that Iraq’s weapons could be deployed in 45 minutes into the September weapons dossier, against the wishes of the intelligence services, to make it “sexier”.

Campbell — a tabloid journalist turned communications maestro — has accused the BBC of lying, demanding an apology and questioning its reporting.

The world-famous broadcaster stands by its story.

“The reason why we are taking this so seriously is that it calls into question the integrity of the prime minister, the security services and the government,” Blair’s spokesman said.—Reuters