Feared Iraq war could be illegal - report
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-23 13:56

The British government's top lawyer warned less than two weeks before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that military action could be illegal, the Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Lord Goldsmith expressed his doubts to Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington's staunchest ally in Iraq, in a document on March 7, 2003, the paper said.

The newspaper said the British government was so concerned about legal challenges to war that it set up a team of lawyers to prepare for any action in an international court.

The Guardian said it based its report on a book to be published this week called "Lawless World," by law professor and lawyer Philippe Sands, who shares the London offices of the prime minister's barrister wife, Cherie Booth.

"So concerned was the government about the possibility of such a case that it took steps to put together a legal team to prepare for possible international litigation," Sands wrote in an extract of his book published in the Guardian.

Goldsmith was not immediately available for comment.

He has previously denied opponents' claims he swallowed his own doubts about the case for war to give Blair legal cover after London and Washington failed to gain United Nations backing for a resolution authorizing military action.

The British government has only ever published a summary of his advice.

According to Sands's book, Goldsmith raised doubts about the legality of military action in advice given to Blair in a 13-page document.

Goldsmith warned: "If the argument were to come before a court of law it might well be unsuccessful, so the use of force could be found to be illegal."

However, Sands says that 10 days later, on March 17, Goldsmith said in answer to a parliamentary question that it was "plain" that Iraq was in breach of U.N. resolution 1441 which required it to comply with disarmament obligations.

"Plain to whom?" Sands asks in his book. "(This answer) was neither a summary nor a precis of any of the earlier advices which the attorney general had provided."

Blair, who is preparing to fight an election expected in May, has refused calls to publish the legal advice Goldsmith gave him.

The war in Iraq dragged down Blair's once sky-high public ratings and divided his ruling Labour Party.

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