WASHINGTON, July 12: The CIA has accepted blame for President Bush’s false claim that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger for making nuclear weapons.

The US and Britain used this claim, delivered in Mr Bush’s annual State of the Union address in January, for justifying their invasion of Iraq.

In a statement issued on Thursday evening, CIA director George Tenet acknowledged that he was responsible for President Bush’s blunder.

Mr Tenet said the CIA approved the State of the Union address, including the uranium claim. “The president had every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound,” he added. “Those 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the president.”

He said CIA officials approved the speech because it was “factually correct” that the British report said Iraq sought uranium from Africa, without taking into account the agency’s own serious doubts about the British report.

“This should not have been the test for clearing a presidential address,” Mr Tenet said. “This did not rise to the level of certainty which should be required for presidential speeches, and CIA should have ensured that it was removed.”

Asked whether Mr Tenet would consider resigning, CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said: “I’ve heard no discussion along those lines.”

US officials told reporters in Washington on Saturday that President Bush had planned to use the report in an earlier speech he delivered in Cincinnati on Oct 7. Mr Tenet, however, advised a White House top aide, Steven Hadley, to have it removed. It was not clear why the CIA allowed the president to use this report more than three months later in a nationally televised address.

Meanwhile, the White House issued a statement on Saturday saying that President Bush considers the controversy over the Iraqi uranium issue closed. He has reaffirmed his confidence in the CIA director, the statement said.

“The president has moved on and I think frankly that much of the country has moved on as well,” said the statement from White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

“The president has confidence in Director Tenet. President Bush has confidence in the CIA,” Mr Fleischer added.

The CIA’s clarification came as charges of deception swirled around the White House and both Democratic and Republican senators called for an investigation.

The White House defended the president, saying that despite this mistake his decision to invade Iraq was right.

But Senator Joseph Lieberman, one of nine Democrats running for president, released a statement warning that the White House “cannot and should not play fast and loose with our intelligence information.”

“Quite simply, we need to know what people in the administration knew about the weakness of our uranium intelligence reports and when they knew it.”