Source: Blair to order WMD inquiry
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Blair has been under growing pressure to launch an investigation.
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LONDON, England -- The British government is to follow the White House and order an inquiry into its prewar intelligence on Iraq, news agencies quote PM Tony Blair's spokesman as saying.
A government spokesman told CNN there would be no official public announcement Monday but there would be a statement on the issue of a WMD intelligence inquiry Tuesday.
Blair could use his appearance before a committee of top-ranking parliamentarians on Tuesday to announce the inquiry and what form it will take.
He has been under growing pressure to launch an investigation of pre-Iraq war intelligence reports on Saddam Hussein's WMDs after U.S. President George W. Bush signaled a U.S. inquiry. (Full story)
The prime minister's official spokesman would not be drawn on what form any announcement would take.
"We are close to announcing how we are going to address these questions but we want first to announce that to parliament," the spokesman said.
Blair took British troops to war on the basis of evidence of Iraqi WMDs and opposition parties in Britain had demanded the prime minister matched the Bush move.
Conservative opposition leader Michael Howard led the calls for a UK inquiry and was Monday tabling a House of Commons motion demanding an inquiry into the intelligence which led Britain into the war.
Howard called on Blair Monday not to become the "odd man out."
He said it was necessary to have an inquiry in Britain in order to ensure confidence in intelligence information should the country be asked to intervene in a similar manner in the future.
"I hope that Tony Blair won't continue to be the isolated, won't continue to be the odd man out on this," he told GMTV.
"Everybody, I think, now recognizes that something went wrong over the intelligence and it is very interesting that it looks as though President Bush is going to hold an inquiry. I think we do need one here."
Polls in The Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Times newspapers showed 61 percent and 54 percent of the British public respectively wanted an investigation into evidence of Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Before the war, Blair said Saddam's arsenal was "active, detailed and growing" and that Iraq posed a present threat.
Despite no banned weapons having been found, Blair has publicly remained confident that "weapons programmes" would be found.
British media reports Monday hinted of a shift in tack by Blair.
"While Downing Street made it clear Sunday that it would resist such calls, the prime minister will prepare the ground for a climb down this week when he acknowledges the need to come clean about the failure to uncover any banned weapons," said a front page article in The Guardian newspaper.
The Daily Mail also talked of a "spectacular climb down" over WMDs, saying Blair had been stunned by the Bush move.
Pressure has been growing on both sides of the Atlantic since the head of the Iraq Survey Group, David Kay, quit, saying intelligence suggesting Saddam had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons was wrong.
Nevertheless Blair government ministers were dismissing inquiry calls and insisted there was "categoric" evidence Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
Debate in Britain had focused on intelligence after a tumultuous week for Blair that had threatened his future in the seventh year of his rule. He survived a knife-edge parliamentary vote on his education policy and was exonerated by judge Lord Hutton of blame for Iraq weapons expert's David Kelly's suicide.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
