London, July 10: British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted today hat proof of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction would be unearthed, as the furore over the run-up to the US-led war raged on. "The Prime Minister believes, and is absolutely confident, that we will find material" relating to chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, a spokesman for Blair told reporters.
"The Prime Minister is also absolutely confident that we will find evidence not only of his WMD programmes, but concrete evidence of the product of those programmes as well," he added.
Blair's defensive stance came amid controversy in both London and Washington over the way in which both capitals made the case for ending UN arms inspections and launching the March 20 invasion to topple the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Blair had suggested Tuesday that only "evidence of programmes" would likely be uncovered. But the spokesman today made clear the prime minister also expected actual weapons to be found.
Bureau Report