LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized for flawed intelligence on Iraq, but angrily denied charges he "misrepresented" it to make the case for joining the US-led invasion last year.
Blair`s defense came in a lively duel in parliament following the release of a new US report on Iraq and his government`s formal withdrawal of a claim that Saddam could mount a chemical or biological attack in 45 minutes.
With general elections widely expected for next May, the main opposition Conservatives and the smaller Liberal Democrats have increased their criticism of Blair`s Labour government, which consistently leads in opinion polls.
Sparring with Conservative leader Michael Howard during a weekly question period in the House of Commons, Blair said: "I cannot bring myself to say that I misrepresented the evidence, since I don`t accept that I did."
Howard had asked Blair to apologize for "misrepresenting" the intelligence, rather than for actually waging a war which the Conservative Party supported.
The Conservatives accuse the government of presenting intelligence labelled "sporadic, patchy and limited" by an official British inquiry in July as if it were authoritative.
"I indeed apologize for any information given in good faith but which subsequently turned out to be wrong," Blair said. "I`ve already done so."
"What I don`t in any way accept is that there was any deception in any way," Blair said, demanding that Howard withdraw his allegation.
His call triggered a chorus of "withdraw, withdraw" from Labour backbenchers.
The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) released a 1,000-page report last week that found Saddam had destroyed most of his chemical and biological weapons after losing the 1991 Gulf War and that his nuclear program had "progressively decayed."
Blair accused the Conservative leader of trying to capitalize on anti-war sentiment despite having originally supported the conflict.
In a separate duel, anti-war Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy accused Blair of having led Britain into "an illegal war" and asked him again whether he gave Washington a pre-war promise to back the overthrow of Saddam.
But Blair replied that regime change had only been a means to enforce UN resolutions requiring that Saddam get rid of his weapons of mass destruction.
But Kennedy said that in the light of the withdrawal of the "45-minute claim" and the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, regime change had become "the only remaining argument."
"But you know that regime change is contrary to international law?" Kennedy asked.
A day earlier in parliament, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw disclosed that British intelligence had now finally withdrawn a notorious claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction in just 45 minutes.
The 45-minute claim was part of a controversial September 2002 British dossier on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, which failed to explain that it referred only to battlefield weapons, and not long-range missiles.
Blair returned to his argument that he was seeking to enforce UN resolutions.
He accused Kennedy of accepting the Iraq Survey Group`s failure to find weapons but rejecting its finding of breaches of UN resolutions.
"You accept the report, you just disagree with its conclusions except the conclusions that suit you.
He said that he was sticking by "a difficult choice."
He added: "But if you had had your way, Saddam Hussein and his sons would still be running Iraq. That is why I took the stand I did."