Washington: US Attorney General John Ashcroft has laid the blame for the September 11 attacks on the Clinton administration as the official inquiry into the al-Qaeda strikes highlighted flaws in FBI action.

Ashcroft hit back yesterday (Apr 13, 2004) after he was also accused of rejecting an FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) request for extra funds the day before Osama bin Laden's followers flew hijacked airliners into New York and Washington in 2001.

The head of the Department of Justice faced intense questioning from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

President Bush's administration has come under intense scrutiny over its counter-terrorism strategy in the months before the attacks which left about 3,000 dead.

However, the Attorney General said the fault lay with the administration of President Bill Clinton that left office in January 2001.

"The simple fact of September 11 is this, we did not know an attack was coming because for nearly a decade, our Government had blinded itself to its enemies," Ashcroft told the Commission.

"The old national intelligence system in place on September 11 was destined to fail," he said.