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London: In a reprieve for the Blair government on the controversy surrounding evidence for justification of the Iraq war, a British Parliamentary Committee found the government did not deliberately "sex up" a dossier on Iraqi weapons, but criticised the Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, saying he withheld evidence on the use of intelligence.

The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), drawn from both Houses of Parliament, said the dossier had not been "sexed up" by Alistair Campbell, Prime Minister's then communications chief "or anybody else".

But it criticised the way the controversial claim that some Iraqi weapons of mass destruction could be deployed within 45 minutes was presented, as "unhelpful to an understanding of this issue".

The committee said Hoon and his Ministry of Defence had been "unhelpful and potentially misleading" by initially failing to disclose that some of its staff had expressed concerns about the dossier.

"It was disturbing that the Defence Secretary did not disclose full details of concerns about the government's Iraq weapons dossier among Defence Intelligence staff."

The ISC chairman Ann Taylor told reporters, "The report does not judge whether the decision to invade Iraq was correct.

"The purpose of this report is to examine whether the available intelligence, which informed the decision to invade Iraq was adequate and properly assessed and whether it was properly reflected in government publications."

PTI