White House turns on CIA over uranium claim

The CIA and the White House were embroiled in a dispute yesterday concerning the allegation that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Niger to build nuclear weapons.

The information was passed to Washington by MI6. President George Bush cited British intelligence when he included it in his state of the union address in January to argue the case for war.

It emerged this week that the CIA had independently concluded it was false but did not inform the White House.

Yesterday Condoleezza Rice, Mr Bush's national security adviser, put further pressure on the CIA. She insisted the agency had cleared the claim in the president's speech. If CIA director, George Tenet, had any misgivings, "he did not make them known".

Ms Rice was responding to reports in the US media that the CIA had questioned the British claims that Iraq was seeking uranium from the African country and suggested it should be excluded from Mr Bush's address to Congress.

The Washington Post said the CIA had also tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade the British government to drop the claims. It sent Joe Wilson, a former diplomat to Niger, to investigate the matter. He concluded it was false.

Ms Rice said yesterday that the secretary of state, Colin Powell, had decided not to mention the claim in his presentation to the security council a few days after the president's speech.

The dispute over the uranium is adding to disquiet on both sides of the Atlantic about the accuracy of British and US intelligence about Iraq's weapons. The British government's September dossier, whose contents are now disputed, said Iraq "has sought the supply of significant quantities of uranium from Africa".

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) subsequently said documents backing the claim were forgeries. British intelligence officials later admitted this but added that there was "other evidence" to back up the claims. The IAEA told the Guardian yesterday that the British government had not provided it with any extra evidence.

It added that its own investi gations supported Mr Wilson's conclusion and that all Niger's uranium was accounted for.

British sources said they had not provided the US with the information to support their case because it had been given to Britain by another country which asked not to be named.

This week the Commons foreign affairs committee attacked the government's handling of the issue.

Jack Straw told MPs he did not know when the CIA warned his government that the uranium documents were forgeries. The committee also pointed out that the foreign secretary had been unable to comment on separate intelligence about the Niger uranium until it was investigated "properly".

The MPs said: "We conclude that it is very odd indeed that the government asserts that it was not relying on the evidence which has since been shown to have been forged, but that eight months later it is still reviewing the other evidence." Parliament's intelligence and security committee, which meets in private, is also investigating the claims.

In Washington, Democratic presidential contenders senators Joe Lieberman and Howard Dean called for an investigation into the false intelligence given to Mr Bush.

Mr Dean said whoever was responsible for the claims should resign. Mr Lieberman, who backed the war, voiced concern over the reports that the Bush administration had ignored CIA objections to including the uranium claim in the state of the union address.

"These are troubling reports that need full and thorough investigation," he said.

"We cannot and should not play fast and loose with our intelligence information and, however it happened, we now know that the information in the state of the union was false and misled the American people."

He added: "This breaks the basic bond of trust we must have with our leaders in times of war and terrorism."

Asked yesterday if Mr Bush had confidence in the CIA, Ms Rice replied: "Absolutely."

She was speaking to reporters aboard Mr Bush's plane while flying from South Africa to Uganda.