Telegraph - Blair admits ignorance on WMD

Tony Blair admitted yesterday that when he asked MPs to vote for war he had been unaware that the claim that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes referred only to battlefield weapons, not missiles.

Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, told the Hutton inquiry he knew that the 45 minute claim referred only to chemical shells, but did not think he had a duty to correct the public misconception.

John Scarlett, the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, told Lord Hutton the 45 minute claim referred not to warheads or missiles but to battlefield mortar shells or small calibre weapons.