WASHINGTON, July 10: Several opposition lawmakers in the United States on Wednesday called for investigations to determine why President George Bush used false information to justify the invasion of Iraq.

“Knowing all that we know now, the reference to Iraq’s attempt to acquire uranium from Africa should not have been included in (President Bush’s) State of the Union speech,” the White House statement said.

President Bush had claimed in his Jan 28 speech that Iraq had purchased uranium from Niger for making nuclear weapons, a charge already disputed by the United Nations and the US Department of Energy.

But on Tuesday the White House admitted that the claim was based on flawed intelligence.

By Wednesday, several prominent Democrats were supporting the demand for an inquiry to determine why President Bush used information in his speech that the CIA and other government agencies already knew was false.

The ruling Republican lawmakers, however, are backing the president. They argue that by admitting its mistake the administration has acted honestly and forthrightly.

Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle, who leads the Democratic Party in the Senate, called it a “very important admission, which ought to be reviewed very carefully. It ought to be the subject of careful scrutiny as well as some hearings”.

Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the administration’s admission was not a revelation. “The whole world knew it was a fraud.”

“The question has always been how did it get into the president’s speech. How was it disseminated when it was debunked by the intelligence community? Was there a judgment made that we’re going to use it anyway,” asked Mr Rockefeller.

The Democrat lawmaker said he had asked for an investigation by the inspectors general of the CIA and the State Department.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is already holding an investigation.

Senator Carl M. Levin, ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, questioned why, as late as Jan 28, “policymakers were still using information which the intelligence community knew was almost certainly false.”

He also questioned President Bush’s National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice’s claim that the CIA kept the information “buried in the bowels of the agency” and that’s why she did not know it was incorrect.

Senator Levin said he hoped the intelligence committee inquiry and one he is conducting with the Democratic staff of the armed services panel will explore why the CIA failed to share the information with Ms Rice and other officials.

Several candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination also criticized President Bush.

Congressman Richard A. Gephardt said Mr. Bush’s “factual lapse” cannot be easily dismissed “as an intelligence failure.” He said the president “has a pattern of using excessive language in his speeches and off-the-cuff remarks” which “represents a failure of presidential leadership”.

Senator John F. Kerry said the administration “doesn’t get honesty points for belatedly admitting what has been apparent to the world for some time __ that emphatic statements made on Iraq were inaccurate”.

Senator Bob Graham, former chairman of the intelligence panel, said, “Mr. Bush’s credibility is increasingly in doubt.”

TOO LATE: A former U.S. diplomat who initially investigated reports of the alleged Iraqi effort to buy uranium said the Bush administration’s admission of its error was too late.