Appearing before a parliamentary inquiry in the United Kingdom on Friday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 had been correct and had been supported by the right arguments.

He said former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had ignored international justice for years and that that had been sufficient reason to invade his country.

At the time of the invasion, Mr Brown was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the cabinet of then prime minister Tony Blair. Mr Blair was the most enthusiastic supporter of then US President George W Bush, who had led the international call for an invasion.

In January, Mr Blair defended his policy for the invasion to the same parliamentary committee. He said Great Britain had been right to join the invasion because, at the time, there had been a very real danger that Iraq might produce weapons of mass destruction.