Poll shows most Britons believe Blair lied over Iraq

Days after an independent inquiry ruled out duplicity of the British government on Iraq intelligence,most of the Britons think that Prime Minister Tony Blair did not tell the truth over Iraq, according to a poll published by the Guardian newspaper Tuesday.

A clear majority of British voters, 55 percent, believed that Blair had lied, compared with 37 percent of the respondents who said he had told the truth, said the ICM poll which interviewed 1,007 adults between Friday and Sunday.

According to the poll, opposition to the US-led war against Iraq has jumped 13 points in the last two months, with 56 percent saying the war was not justified.

The poll, which showed that 31 percent of the British public believed Blair should resign now, came after the inquiry led by Lord Butler ruled last week that some sources of the British intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMD)were "seriously flawed," but no evidence of "deliberate distortionor culpable negligence" has been found within the British government.

Blair, who was facing fierce and sustained attacks over Iraq from British opposition parties, weapons inspectors and former intelligence officials, was expected to attend a crucial parliamentary debate on the Butler report Tuesday.

Former chief of US weapons inspections in Iraq, David Kay, on Sunday accused Blair of going to war on flawed evidence, claiming that Blair and US President George W. Bush should have known Iraq did not have WMD.

Source: Xinhua