US President George W Bush came to the defence of British Prime Minister Tony Blair today, dismissing allegations the latter exaggerated evidence of Iraq's alleged weapons as "simply not true".
Both leaders have been dogged by critics who allege they may have hyped the threat posed by Baghdad to build the case for war.
But Mr Blair in particular faces mounting political pressure at home to produce evidence of banned Iraqi weapons that he said justified Britain joining the United States in military action.
US forces have not found chemical or biological weapons since ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power in April.
Mr Bush has cited the discovery of suspected bio-labs as proof of progress in the weapons hunt, and White House officials say it will take time to uncover the extent of Iraq's illicit programs.
"This has been a very careful search, and a search that has turned up things that we have previously talked about applying to the weapons of mass destruction program that the Iraqis had," White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee today plans to start a review of what intelligence agencies told Mr Bush administration officials about the threat posed by Iraq before the war.