CIA critical of British uranium claim

Most of the details about Britain's role in promoting bogus intelligence about Iraq's alleged weapons were discreetly hidden under the censor's black marker pen in yesterday's Senate report.

However, enough was left uncensored to show that the CIA thought very little of the work of its British counterparts when it came to Saddam's supposed attempts to buy uranium in Niger.

The issue came up as the White House was preparing a landmark speech for the president in Cincinnati in October 2002, in which Mr Bush would say: "The regime has been caught attempting to purchase up to 500 tonnes of uranium oxide from Africa - an essential ingredient in the enrichment process."

The CIA, aware that the claim was built largely on information passed to them by British intelligence, struggled to get the line removed. "We told Congress that the Brits have exaggerated this issue," one senior CIA official wrote in a memorandum to the national security council. The line was dropped from the speech.

However, it reappeared in the president's State of the Union address the following January, causing consternation in CIA ranks. It may be that the White House felt obliged to back up the British claims.

According to the senate report, one CIA analyst reported being told by a staff member at the national security council that to remove all reference to Iraqi attempts to buy uranium in Africa "would leave the British flapping in the wind".

It comes as the Butler report is about to pronounce on Britain's use of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. Lord Butler is expected to single out the claim that Iraqi forces could deploy chemical and biological weapons in 45 minutes - a claim even the CIA did not make.

Unlike the Senate committee - which did not investigate claims about how the White House used or abused intelligence - Lord Butler's mandate included the way the British government did.