William Hague, a former leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, told parliament he found Blair's professed haziness about Iraq's stocks of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) "extraordinary".

Hague taunted Blair about an infamous claim in a pre-war British government dossier on Iraq's WMDs that Baghdad could unleash its illegal weapons within 45 minutes.

British newspapers wrote lurid headlines about troops in Cyprus being at risk, but it later transpired that the claim referred only to battlefield weapons -- a distinction Blair claimed later to have been ignorant of.

This a "great mystery", Hague told members of parliament, who were debating a report which concluded last week that much of the intelligence about Iraq's weapons had been flawed.

"You cannot picture most ministers being told by their officials that lunch would be ready in 45 minutes without asking searching questions about the menu and who it was going to be delivered by," Hague jibed.

Hague compared Blair with Thatcher, who led Britain though the 1982 Falklands War against Argentina.

"Can we imagine Baroness Thatcher being told at the time of the Falklands that the Argentinians had weapons of mass destruction that could be used in 45 minutes?" Hague asked.

"The official who told her would have been pinned to the wall until he had worked out and told her every last little bit of intelligence, any point of detail about that claim."

WAR.WIRE