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British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he has "absolutely no doubt" in his mind that the pre-war intelligence he received, which suggested Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was the basis for Britain going to war, was genuine, The Observer reported on Sunday.
"If you ask me what I believe, I believe the intelligence was correct, and I think in the end we will have an explanation," Blair said in an interview with the newspaper ahead of the publication of Hutton inquiry report into the death of the government's weapons scientist David Kelly on Wednesday.
When asked whether any weapons of mass destruction would ever be found, the prime minister said that was a matter for the Iraqi survey Group.
The head of the Iraq Survey Group, David Kay, upon his resignation on Friday, said he did not believe Iraq possessed large stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons. This was followed by similar comments from US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who conceded Iraq may not have possessed any WMD stocks before the war last year.
On the Hutton report, and a crucial parliamentary vote Tuesday on an unpopular proposal to triple university tuition fees, Blair acknowledged that his job was, as always, at stake. "I think in this job you spend the entire time at risk, so there is not a moment when you are not," he added.
Three days before the publication of the Hutton Inquiry report, a majority of voters believe that Blair should quit if Lord Hutton finds that he or his staff acted improperly over the naming of Kelly.
The YouGov poll for ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby program found that 56 percent of those asked would want Blair to leave Downing Street in those circumstances and that about 59 percent think Blair should go if Lord Hutton finds that the prime minister's staff deliberately inserted exaggerated claims into its September 2002 dossier on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Although the Hutton report may include strong criticism of Blair's style of government and the methods used by his aides, the prime minister's officials are confident that he will not be personally condemned for his role in the events leading to Kelly's death, the Sunday Telegraph said.
(Xinhua News Agency January 26, 2004)
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