ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - July 4 - No WMD Stockpiles In Iraq.

Talking to the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme, Blair's former envoy to Iraq Sir Jeremy Greenstock admits that claims Saddam had stockpiles of WMD are wrong, saying no evidence of them has been found. He says: "We didn't know they [the stockpiles] were there, but we thought that there was a considerable danger that they were there because the intelligence, not just in the American and British systems, but in the French, German, Russian systems all said, was quite compelling at the time". The admission comes as the Butler inquiry finalises its report on the intelligence underpinning the decision to go to war, ahead of publication on July 14. Sir Jeremy's comments mark the first categoric acknowledgment by a current or recently serving senior UK official that mistakes were made in assessing the threat from Iraq. US Pres Bush, agreed in February it was "apparently not the case" that Iraq had WMD stockpiles. Whether Sir Jeremy felt that raw intelligence or analysis of it had been at fault was not clear. The Iraqis may have misled Saddam about their weapons capability, he suggested. But he said that the reasons for taking military action were "actually quite compelling", founded not just on the intelligence but also on Iraq's persistent violation of UN demands and its intent to acquire WMD. (Sir Jeremy is among those to have given evidence to the inquiry, which is expected by Whitehall insiders to take a critical look at the September 2002 government dossier on Iraq's weapons).