London: British Prime Minister Tony Blair came under severe criticism by former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix over UK's reasons for joining the Iraq war.

Hans Blix said on Sunday (Feb 8, 2004) that Prime Minister Tony Blair behaved like a "vendor with some merchandise" by dramatising one of the key planks of the British Government's case that Iraq possessed a pre-war arsenal of illegal weaponry.

"One could interpret it in different ways but the intention was to dramatise it, just as the vendors of some merchandise are trying to increase or exaggerate the importance of what they have," Blix told BBC television.

"From politicians, from our leaders in the West, I think we expect more than that. A bit more sincerity," Blix said.

He was referring to the prominence that Blair, Washington's main ally over Iraq, gave in a September 2002 intelligence dossier to a claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes.

The dossier formed part of Blair's efforts to persuade a sceptical British public that pre-emptive military action was required to rid Saddam of weapons of mass destruction.

Blix's comments coincided with an article in the 'Independent' on Sunday newspaper, which claimed that the source of the 45-minute claim had left Iraq some years earlier and had only obtained the information second-hand.