"I have to accept that we haven't found them, that we may not find them," said Blair during a question-and-answer exchange with senior members of the British parliament.

"We don't know what has happened to them," he added. "They could have been removed. They could have been hidden. They could have been destroyed."

He made no apology for invading Iraq, saying the decision to do so was taken by Washington and London after many years of UN resolutions condemning Saddam Hussein's pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear arms.

"What I would say very strongly ... is that to go to the opposite extreme and say therefore no threat existed from Saddam Hussein would be a mistake," the prime minister said.

He added: "I do not believe there was not a threat in relation to weapons of mass destruction.... We have found very clear evidence of intent and desire."

"Whether they were hidden, removed or destroyed, (Saddam) was in clear breach of UN resolutions."

Prior to his exchange Tuesday with the chairmen of the select committees of the British parliament, Blair had held back from saying that Saddam's presumed arsenal might never be found.

Instead he insisted on the need to wait for the findings of the Iraq Survey Group, which has been hunting for weapons of mass destruction since the US and British invasion of Iraq in March last year.

An independent inquiry into the use and quality of British intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war is to release its report next week.

WAR.WIRE