This was the moment everyone had waited for: Tony Blair, wearing a navy blue suit and a red tie, Friday sat down before the Chilcot inquiry into the U.S.-led Iraq war in downtown London. Outside, hundreds of anti-war protesters had lined up with signs reading "Liar" and "Jail Tony."

In his six-hour testimony to the panel, Blair repeatedly and strongly defended his decision to take Britain to war, arguing that the intelligence community was consistently persuasive on the existence of a covert Iraqi WMD program.

"The decision I took -- and frankly would take again -- was if there was any possibility that he could develop weapons of mass destruction we should stop him," he added. "That was my view then and that is my view now."

The British public is angry with Blair for maneuvering Britain into a military campaign that was based on shaky intelligence and resulted in the deaths of 179 British troops as well as 100,000 Iraqis.

Notwithstanding the hundreds of demonstrators outside, Blair vowed he did not deceive the public about the reasons for going to war.

"This isn't about a lie or a conspiracy or a deceit or a deception," Blair said. "It's a decision. And the decision I had to take was, given Saddam's history, given his use of chemical weapons, given the over 1 million people whose deaths he had caused, given 10 years of breaking U.N. resolutions, could we take the risk of this man reconstituting his weapons programs or is that a risk that it would be irresponsible to take?"

He continued: "I had to take the decision. I believed, and in the end the Cabinet believed -- so did Parliament incidentally -- that we were right not to run that risk."

The high-profile public inquiry already grilled several military officials and ministers and will question current Prime Minister Gordon Brown next month.

Earlier testimonials had indicated that Blair and former U.S. President George W. Bush struck a secret deal to go to war at all costs. Blair, who was derided in the early months of the war as "Bush's poodle," strongly denied this, saying that he had tried to prevent the war until the last minute.

"This is an alliance that we have with the United States of America," he said. "It is not a contract; it's not, 'You do this and we'll do that.'"

Blair added, however, that he had told Bush that Britain would be with him if military action was not avoidable.

Blair said the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, changed threat assessment of terrorists and rogue states, and convinced him to not wait too long before taking bold action.

"The point about those acts in New York is that, had they been able to kill more people than the 3,000, they would have. My view was you can't take risks with this issue."

The relatives of the fallen British soldiers listening to Blair's testimony were not convinced.

"I would like him to look into my eyes and say 'I'm sorry.' But he hasn't got the guts," Theresea Evans, whose son Llywelyn died in Iraq in 2003, told the London Times. "He's got no feelings at all for anybody."

earlier related report
Qaeda group claims Baghdad suicide bombing
Dubai (AFP) Jan 29, 2010 - An Al-Qaeda group claimed responsibility on Friday for this week's suicide bomb attack at Iraq's forensics headquarters in Baghdad, killing 18 people, wounding 80 others and destroying the building.

"The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the Al-Qaeda front in Iraq, claimed responsibility" for Tuesday's suicide car bombing, the US-based SITE Intelligence Group that monitors jihadist forums on the Internet said.

It said the group posted a statement saying that the attack came under what it called "the 'fourth wave' of its 'Invasion of the Captive' campaign."

The same group admitted responsibility for three deadly bomb attacks on Baghdad hotels the previous day, huge blasts that killed at least 36 people and wounded 71 less than six weeks before a general election set for March 7.

Those attacks targeted hotels frequented by foreigners.

"They boast that the closeness in time between the attacks demonstrates the might of the mujahedeen and that 'there will be no fortified locations that prevent them from the necks of their enemy'," the SITE report said.

Tuesday's suicide bomber evaded tight security and checkpoints in the central neighbourhood of Karrada to target the interior ministry's forensics institute, which has been bombed twice before.

Nearly 400 people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded last year in coordinated vehicle bombings at government buildings, including the ministries of finance, foreign affairs and justice in August, October and December.

Iraqi politicians and US forces have warned of rising violence ahead of the March 7 vote, the second parliamentary ballot since the 2003 US-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein but ushered in a deadly and long-lasting insurgency.

The recent unrest also comes amid a bitter row sparked by the exclusion of hundreds of candidates from the election because of their alleged links with Saddam, which could see Sunni Arabs marginalised from the political process.

The election is seen as a crucial step towards consolidating Iraq's democracy and securing a complete US military exit by the end of 2011, as planned.

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