Key phrase was dropped from UK Iraq dossier

The British intelligence chief responsible for a pre-war dossier on Iraq's weapons dropped a key sentence from it days before publication after prompting from the prime minister's office, an inquiry heard yesterday.

He did it at the suggestion of Mr Jonathan Powell, chief of staff to Tony Blair, the inquiry heard.

The offending sentence stated that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was prepared to use chemical and biological weapons "if he believes his regime is under threat".

Mr Powell argued that phrase suggested Iraq was only a threat if attacked.

The revelation that Mr Powell ordered the sentence to be omitted raises fresh doubts over the intervention of Mr Blair's team in the compilation of the September intelligence dossier.

The case Mr Blair made for war - Iraq's weapons of mass destruction - has come under intense scrutiny at the inquiry into the suicide of Iraq weapons expert David Kelly, especially since no banned weapons have been discovered in Iraq.

Dr Kelly killed himself in July shortly after being named as the source of a BBC radio report that claimed the dossier had been "sexed up" at the last minute at the behest of Mr Blair's Downing Street office. His death and the inquiry has plunged Mr Blair into the worst political crisis of his six-year tenure.

In an email to John Scarlett, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Mr Powell noted that the sentence "backs up the argument that there is no CBW (chemical, biological weapons) threat and we will only create one if we attack him. I think you should redraft that para."

Mr Scarlett agreed to the change to what would have been the dossier's final draft before publication.

"We were prompted to look again at this by the (Powell's) memorandum," Mr Scarlett conceded. But under tough cross-examination, he rejected the suggestion made by counsel to the BBC that Downing Street's "intervention" forced the change.

"It was not as a result of the intervention from Downing Street. It was a result of the exercise of my professional judgement," Mr Scarlett said, adding the change was made in line with intelligence received.

Mr Scarlett was adamant that the dossier was the work of the intelligence services and that Downing Street's input was purely "presentational".

Mr Scarlett's evidence will do little to boost the public's trust in Mr Blair over the Iraq war. A Guardian/ ICM poll yesterday showed that now only 38 per cent of the British public believe it was right to invade Iraq.

Lord Hutton, chairing the inquiry, has said no one is immune from criticism in his final report that is expected to look at how Dr Kelly was treated by the Ministry of Defence and the government and the wider case Mr Blair made for war.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon is seen by the British media as the most likely government "fall guy" over the Kelly affair.