The House of Commons has voted to reject the establishment of an independent inquiry into allegations that the government misled parliament over alleged weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the war in Iraq.
The Liberal-Democrat motion for the setting-up of such an inquiry was approved by 203 members of parliament, with 301 against. Eleven members of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party voted in favour.
The Conservatives broadly backed the motion.
Mr Blair denied allegations this afternoon that Downing Street had embellished a dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction published in September last year.
"It is completely and totally untrue" that a warning in the dossier that Iraq could deploy chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes was added to the dossier at the behest of Downing Street, Mr Blair told parliament.
The dossier's claim on Iraq's weapons' capabilities was among the arguments that the United States and Britain used to justify launching a war against Saddam Hussein's regime.
AFP