Strasbourg, France, May 14: Members of the European parliament insisted today that the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq must continue and that United Nations inspectors should return there. "I recommend that the search for these weapons, which were the origin of the conflict, continue," said Hans Gert Pottering, president of the largest political group in the parliament, the Centre-Right PPE (Conservatives and Christian Democrats.) "This issue has to be taken very seriously if we want to remain politically credible." Earlier British foreign secretary Jack Straw had said that finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was not "crucially important" to justify the decision by London and Washington to invade the country. "The evidence in respect of Iraq was so strong that the (UN) Security Council on 8 November said unanimously that Iraq's proliferation and possession of WMD and unlawful weapons systems were 'a threat to international peace and security'," Straw said.

British Liberal Member of the Parliament (MEP) Graham Watson demanded a "vital or central role" for the UN which, he said, would mean readmitting the chief UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix and his team to see what had happened to the weapons.

"If some governments do not agree to the return it is precisely because it is becoming less and less probable that there are any weapons," said Dutch Green MEP Joost Lagendijk.

Bureau Report