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London: British Prime Minister Tony Blair is accused of "duping" the nation and "misleading world opinion" on the issue of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

While his former Cabinet colleague Clare Short, the former International Development Secretary levelled charges of "duping the nation" against Blair, the German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer embarrassed the British Prime Minister in St Petersburg by warning him against "misleading world pinion" on the WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) issue.

In an interview with 'The Sunday Telegraph,' Short who quit the Cabinet on Iraq issue on May 12, said, "I have concluded that the Prime Minister had decided to go to war in August sometime and he duped us all along. He had decided for reasons that he alone knows to go to war over Iraq and to create this sense of urgency and drive it- the way the intelligence was spun was part of that drive.

"There was political spin put on the intelligence information to create a sense of urgency. It was a political decision that came from the Prime Minister. We were misled- I think we were deceived in the way it was done."

On the other hand, Joschka Fischer, one of Europe's most influential statesmen, button-holed Blair in public to tell him that Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons must be found soon.

"I made it very clear to the British Prime Minister that if there were no weapons of mass destruction then, he, Tony Blair, should admit he has misused intelligence reports and had misled world opinion," Fischer told reporters, according to 'The Mail' on June 1.

PTI