The British Prime Minister Mr Blair has repeated his assertion that the Irish and British governments were given "certain information" not madepublic, about the most recent IRA decommissioning move.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Blair said he "stood entirely" by claims he had information thatwould persuade the public.
Challenged by Tory MP Mr Michael Fallon to "clear up any embarrassment that mayhave inadvertently been caused to the general", he said: "I stand entirely bywhat I said last week.
"I think that General de Chastelain has done an excellent job in extremelydifficult circumstances. But as both myself and the Irish Prime Minister havesaid, there was certain information given to us by General de Chastelain and Ihad hoped very much it would have been possible to provide the full informationto everybody".
The Tory party maintains that while Mr Blair had said that people would be"satisfied" if they knew the full details of decommissioning, General deChastelain, head of the independent international commission on decommissioning,had told them the Prime Minister had received "no more details" than thepublic.
During the session of Northern Ireland questions immediately before Mr Blairtook to the despatch box, shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Quentin Davies hadasked: "Who is right?"
"Do you think that politicians who lie and are therefore distrusted are wellplaced to conclude negotiations?"
Northern Ireland Secretary Mr Paul Murphy replied: "Both the Taoiseach and thePrime Minister met the General in Hillsborough Castle for something approachingan hour to discuss the issues regarding decommissioning.
"The written public statement from General de Chastelain was very short.
"It is obvious, is it not, that someone who spends that amount of timedealing with an issue is going to form an opinion about what happened that isvery different from the bare statement that appeared afterwards?"
He accused the Tories of trying to score "cheap party political points"rather than making efforts to help the peace process.
"I think that the most important thing for us involved in Northern Irelandnow is to look towards the future, to ensure that the elections held in NorthernIreland produce a democratic Assembly and that we will have peace in NorthernIreland."
Liberal Democrat spokesman Mr Lembit Opik said: "The crucial question is did thePrime Minister have insider knowledge - if he did have it where did he getit?"
But Mr Murphy persisted: "I don't think that is the central question... Ithink that the central question now is to ensure that the elections are held andthat we move to a period of stability in Northern Ireland where we can resolvethese difficulties and have an Executive up and running."