British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was criticised today by a Parliamentary inquiry into the use of intelligence on Iraqi for withholding evidence.
The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said in a report today that it was "disturbing" that Mr Hoon did not disclose full details of concerns about the British government's Iraq weapons dossier among Defence Intelligence Staff.
The ISC said that the initial failure of the Ministry of Defence to reveal details of the DIS concerns had been "unhelpful and potentially misleading".
The ISC said that the dossier had not been "sexed up" by No 10 communications chief Mr Alastair Campbell "or anybody else".
But it criticised the way the controversial claim that some Iraqi weapons of mass destruction could be deployed within 45 minutes was presented, as "unhelpful to an understanding of this issue".
It said the dossier also failed to make clear that Saddam Hussein was not considered a "current or imminent threat to mainland UK".
And it said that that it should have highlighted the uncertainty within the intelligence community over Iraq's capacity to produce chemical or biological weapons.
PA