The controversy over President Bush's "mistaken" claim against Iraq in his January State of the Union message widened over the weekend, with calls for the resignation of CIA director Mr George Tenet.
Mr Tenet took responsibility on Friday for not removing an erroneous allegation from the text of Mr Bush's speech delivered to the Joint Houses of Congress on January 28th.
Mr Bush on Saturday expressed his confidence in Mr Tenet but the CIA director, a Clinton appointee, is reported to be considering resigning over the way he has been made to take the blame.
Mr Tenet has, however, a record of trying to dissuade the Bush administration from using the claim - that Saddam Hussein had sought to buy uranium in Africa - which the CIA knew early last year was based on bogus information.
Administration officials acknowledged at the weekend that Mr Tenet had personally intervened with the White House in October to remove similar language from a speech Mr Bush delivered in Cincinnati on October 7th.
On that occasion he spoke with Stephen Hadley, the deputy national security adviser, to warn him against having Mr Bush declare that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from Niger, the officials said.
This has raised serious questions about why information the CIA distrusted in October was subsequently included in Mr Bush's speech to the nation on January 28th. It also shows that the CIA and the White House were both aware of the discredited nature of the information before Mr Bush used it in January to boost his case for going to war.
Mr Bush said in his State of the Union speech: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
Last Monday the White House acknowledged it had been a "mistake" to include this phrase, after revelations that the CIA had established almost a year ago that it was based in part on crudely forged documents purporting to show that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger.
While taking responsibility for not removing the sentence, Mr Tenet did not state that he personally had cleared the speech. He said merely that he was responsible for "the approval process in my agency".
During the drafting of the text, the CIA in fact objected to the wording about uranium and the White House changed it to make it attributable to Britain.
Yesterday national security adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice said on CBS News that the statement was accurate "because this is what the British Government said" and "the British Government stands by it". Had there been "even a peep" from the CIA "it would not have gone in", said Ms Rice, the White House official responsible for vetting the intelligence content of the speech.
In his statement, Mr Tenet said the CIA had in the end let the remark stand because attributing it to the British made it "factually correct". However, the fact that any reference to buying uranium from Africa remained in the speech has led to speculation that pressure was applied from above by Vice-President Mr Dick Cheney.
Mr Cheney had made Iraq's alleged nuclear plans central to his August 2002 speech first making the case against Iraq. On March 16th, weeks after the nuclear information was discredited - and after US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell had refused to include the uranium claim in his February 5th speech to the UN - Mr Cheney told Americans that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons.
In a television interview three days before the war began, he said: "We believe (Saddam Hussein) has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." Democratic Senator John Rockefeller of Virginia, vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said yesterday that Mr Tenet and the CIA "have been made to take the fall to shield the President and his advisers".
The very public role of Ms Rice in putting the blame on Mr Tenet was "dishonourable", he said in the Los Angeles Times, adding that he guessed she "had a lot more to do with this mistake than Tenet did". The CIA director's mea culpa followed statements from Ms Rice and Mr Powell, travelling with the President in Africa, pointing the finger at the CIA which, they said, cleared the speech.
White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said on Saturday that Mr Tenet's acceptance of responsibility came after days of discussions between the CIA director and the White House. Asked if Mr Tenet was prompted to make the statement, Mr Fleischer said, "It was mutual."
The President was pleased that Mr Tenet "acknowledged what needed to be acknowledged". Ms Rice yesterday said Mr Tenet was a "fine" director of intelligence and should not resign.
An ABC-Washington Post poll has shown that more than half of Americans believe the Bush administration intentionally exaggerated the evidence.