British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced an inquiry into the war with Iraq.

He wants to find out what his predecessor Tony Blair's arguments were to go to war against Iraq alongside the Americans in 2003. Prime Minister Brown says a fully independent committee will investigate the matter behind closed doors. The inquiry will probably take a year.

There have been two earlier inquiries into the British decision to participate in the invasion. Both mainly criticised the British intelligence agencies for using incomplete or unreliable information. The official reason for the US-British invasion of Iraq was the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), but not WMD were found.

Photo: ANP/EPA