The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, and his Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, yesterday launched a fierce counterattack against a Labour-dominated committee of MPs after they had delivered a damning verdict on the conduct of Foreign Office ministers and officials during the so-called "arms-to-Africa" affair.
The matter being investigated was British supply of arms to mercenaries in the West African country of Sierra Leone despite a United Nations embargo.
In a scathing report, the MPs make unprecedented criticism of Foreign Office officials as well as lesser criticism of the Foreign Secretary.
They accuse FO chief diplomat Sir John Kerr of having "failed in his duty to ministers" and named officials of "at best political naivete, and at worst a Yes Ministerlike contempt" in their duties.
Mr Cook is also charged with having tried to obstruct the committee's inquiry and for refusing to allow the head of MI6 to give evidence.
The report, described by Mr Donald Anderson, Labour chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee as describing "a catalogue of missed opportunities, wrong choices and poor administration", brought a sharp rejoinder from Whitehall officials even before it was published.
The thrust of Downing Street's complaint, echoed by its official spokesmen and the FO, was that the MPs complaints were what Mr Blair called "disproportionate and unfair", not least - they claimed - because they had uncovered no more than Whitehall's official internal inquiry, by one of Sir John's fellow-permanent secretaries, had unearthed last year.
It amounted to "double jeopardy," officials said. Led by No 10, ministers seemed anxious last night to protect civil servants, even as they noted that the report deflected criticism in their direction more than it does at ministers.
As Tory MPs urged Sir John to do the "honourable thing" and resign, and for Mr Cook to be sacked for his "utterly disastrous" record, dismay was expressed in the Commons chamber that such a fierce counter-attack had been launched so quickly in the media.
In its report the Labour-dominated committee also accuses named officials of treating government policy on the arms embargo "in a disgracefully casual manner". Officials singled out for severe criticism in the report have all been promoted since the affair.
The Foreign Secretary initially placed the blame on his officials - and in particular Peter Penfold, Britain's High Commissioner to Sierra Leone - when the affair broke a year ago. Yesterday he insisted to Sir John that he had "full confidence in the professionalism and the commitment of the officials with whom I work".
Though the committee does not exonerate him from blame, Lt Col Tim Spicer, director of Sandline, a mercenary company operating in Sierra Leone, welcomed the report which makes it clear that the FO should take a large share of the blame for the confusion surrounding the arms embargo.