Blair attacked over Iraq 'errors'

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Tony Blair has defended his policy in Iraq after former defence secretary Geoff Hoon said mistakes had been made.

In an interview with The Guardian, Mr Hoon said Britain and America failed to plan properly for the aftermath of the invasion four years ago.

Mr Blair told MPs at Prime Minister's Questions the job in Iraq was "difficult" and "challenging".

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said the invasion should never have taken place.

Mr Hoon, defence secretary during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, said Britain and America failed to agree on key decisions in the months following the invasion.

The British government also underestimated the role and influence of US vice-president Dick Cheney, he told The Guardian.

'Sunni perspective'

Mr Hoon, now minister for Europe, said: "Sometimes Tony Blair had made his point with the president, and I'd made my point with Don Rumsfeld and Jack Straw had made his point with Colin Powell and the decision actually came out of a completely different place.

Maybe we were too optimistic about the idea of the streets being lined with cheering people Geoff Hoon

"And you think: what did we miss? I think we missed Cheney."

Turning to post-war planning, Mr Hoon told the newspaper "we didn't plan for the right sort of aftermath".

"Maybe we were too optimistic about the idea of the streets being lined with cheering people.

"Although I have reconciled it in my own mind, we perhaps didn't do enough to see it through the Sunni perspective. Perhaps we should have done more to understand their position."

Catastrophic

He said the coalition "should have" anticipated the current violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims, but says they did not know what would happen at the time.

The President made the decisions, the prime minister argued the case, the chancellor signed the cheques and the Tories voted it through Sir Menzies Campbell

He said British and American authorities disagreed over the dismissal of Iraq's 350,000-strong army and police forces.

He told the newspaper: "We certainly argued against the US. I recall having discussions with Donald Rumsfeld, but I recognised that it was one of those judgment calls.

"I would have called it the other way. His argument was that the Iraqi army was so heavily politicised that we couldn't be sure that we would not retain within it large elements of Saddam's people."

Mr Hoon said the sacking of so many Iraqis in possession of weapons and military training had been catastrophic, allowing "Saddam's people to link up with al-Qaeda and to link up ultimately with Sunni insurgents" in fomenting suicide attacks and sectarian violence.

Regret

The dismantling of several ministries and removal from office of all state employees with Ba'ath party membership was also an error, Mr Hoon added.

Mr Hoon also expressed regret over the government's claim in the run-up to war that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, which, he now accepts, turned out to be false.

He said he had "gradually come to the acceptance" the weapons did not exist but insisted the government had acted in good faith.

Questioned about Mr Hoon's comments in the Commons, Mr Blair said he had made "similar points" himself about "De-Ba'athification" and the disbandment of the Iraqi army.

But he added: "The reason why things are so challenging and difficult in Iraq is that we have al-Qaeda on the one hand, which is an outside terrorist organisation, committing appalling acts of carnage in Iraq, and Iranian-backed Shia extremists, and our job in my view, is to stand up to both of those elements, since they're precisely the elements we face in Iraq, Afghanistan and the world over."

Sir Menzies Campbell said it was "clear" where the responsibility lies for Iraq, adding: "The President made the decisions, the prime minister argued the case, the chancellor signed the cheques and the Tories voted it through."

Mr Blair replied that Saddam Hussein would still be in power if Liberal Democrat policy had been followed.