London, May 31: British foreign secretary Jack Straw and US secretary of state Colin Powell expressed doubts in private over public claims they were making about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to war, a British newspaper said today in a report denied by the foreign office. The British daily said the two men voiced concerns about intelligence on Iraqi weapons during a private meeting in New York.
The encounter came shortly before a key UN Security Council meeting on February 5, when Powell presented what he claimed was clear evidence that Iraq was concealing banned weapons, said the report. Its story was based on information from an unnamed diplomatic source, who the paper said had read a transcript of the conversation between Straw and Powell.
The transcript recorded straw voicing concern that assertions being made by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush about Saddam Hussein's arsenals could not be proved. The document quoted Powell as allegedly saying he was "apprehensive" about intelligence assessments containing circumstantial evidence, and telling straw he hoped the facts, when they came out, would not "explode in their faces".
The report said that the transcript appeared to have been leaked by diplomats who were supportive of the use of force against Baghdad at the time, but now feel they were lied to about its justification. Bureau Report