Straw denies ignoring Iraq advice

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Former UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has denied he ignored legal advice that the 2003 invasion of Iraq would be illegal without specific UN authorisation.

Giving evidence for the second time in a month to the Iraq Inquiry, Straw said the advice from top lawyers at Britain's Foreign Office had been "contradictory" and that the final decision on the legality of war lay with the Attorney General.

Two weeks ago, the inquiry heard from Michael Wood, the most senior legal adviser at the Foreign Office until 2006, who said he believed there was no legal basis for military action without a second UN resolution.

Declassified documents showed that Wood had written a memo to Straw in January 2003 that using force without the UN Security Council's authorisation would be a "crime of aggression".

It followed a meeting between Straw and US Vice-President Dick Cheney which concluded Britain "would be OK" with taking military action without a further resolution.

Straw wrote back to Wood saying he rejected his advice.

"Far from ignoring this advice, as has been suggested publicly, I read Sir Michael's minute with great care, and gave it the serious attention it deserved," Straw said in a statement to the inquiry.

"So much so that I thought I owed him a formal and personal written response, rather than simply having a conversation with him."

Straw said Wood had been wrong to say there was no doubt that military action was illegal as there contrary views, as he said the legal adviser had acknowledged in a letter to the Attorney General the month before.

"The legal advice he offered was contradictory and I think I was entitled to raise that," Straw said.

Straw also told the inquiry team that negotiations for the first UN resolution would not have taken so long if Britain and the United States had not sought to make it clear that further authorisation was needed.

In his earlier testimony, Straw said that British involvement in the war would have been impossible had he decided to oppose it, such were the divisions in the Labour Party and the government.

He said he had never wanted war but the government had made "the best judgements we could have done in the circumstances".

- Reuters