Labour MPs challenge Blair over Iraq's WMDs

Tony Blair is facing growing political pressure to explain the mystery of Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction. With no solid evidence yet that there are any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in occupied Iraq, more than 70 MPs, including 53 Labour MPs, have signed a Commons motion challenging him to prove his claim that they were ever there in the first place.

Britain's participation in the invasion of Iraq is to be condemned as illegal by eminent international lawyers at a conference in London next weekend. The conflict raised two issues, said Professor Philippe Sands QC, a member of Cherie Booth's Matrix chambers. "First, did the Security Council authorise the use of force, and the answer to that is no. And were we misled about the presence of weapons of mass destruction? Apparently, yes."

In the US the CIA has begun an inquiry into whether its intelligence was faulty, but it is not thought that MI6 will do the same. Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, wants intelligence chiefs to be made to answer to Parliament as other senior civil servants have to.