TONY BLAIR’S difficulties over weapons of mass destruction deepened last night when the US Government admitted that the Iraq war had been fought on the basis of “murky intelligence”.

The Prime Minister was already facing tough questions about British intelligence with the failure to find Iraq’s weapons and the controversy over government claims that Iraq tried to buy uranium.

But his problems worsened when Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Defence Secretary, said that the US had not been prepared to wait for clear evidence of Iraq’s threat before attacking.

“The nature of terrorism is that intelligence about terrorism is murky,” Mr Wolfowitz told Fox News Sunday.

“I think the lesson of 9/11 is that if you are not prepared to act on the basis of murky intelligence, then you’re going to have to act after the fact, and after the fact now means after horrendous things have happened to this country.”

Mr Wolfowitz was speaking in the light of recent reports that US intelligence officers had not picked up clues about the 9/11 terrorists.

His remarks will be seen as continuing to prepare Americans for the possibility that WMD might never be found. Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, said in May that it was “possible that they decided that they would destroy them prior to a conflict”.

Mr Wolfowitz’s remarks may lead to a backlash from Labour MPs. The Prime Minister based Britain’s case for going to war on the clear threat to British interests.

Lord Falconer of Thoroton, a loyal Cabinet colleague and close friend of the Prime Minister, sought yesterday to calm speculation about Mr Blair’s future by insisting that he would stand at the next general election on the basis of staying for an entire third term.

In a further attempt to take some of the heat out of the summer row with the BBC, David Blunkett calls today for an end to the “frenzy of self-destruction” between the Government and the media.

The Home Secretary, writing in The Times, says that the row is “deeply damaging” to politics and undermining trust in the institutions which underpin British democracy.

Mr Blunkett’s intervention echoes Mr Blair’s call for a period of reflection after the death of David Kelly, the scientist named as the source for controversial BBC stories.

But neither MPs nor the BBC have paid much attention. Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, had to retract yesterday a comment to The Times on Friday that the Hutton inquiry into Dr Kelly’s death would help to shape the BBC’s future. Her reassurance came after Gavyn Davies, the BBC Chairman, made a wide-ranging attack on ministers for “political bullying” over the forthcoming review of the BBC Charter.

Ms Jowell said: “There is no question whatsoever of the dispute with the BBC affecting in any shape or form the BBC’s licence fee or its charter.

“We have made it plain throughout that we will uphold completely the independence of the BBC.”

Her statement seemed at odds with her comment on Friday that she would “consider very carefully any recommendations and conclusions which can be drawn from the Hutton inquiry in relation to the BBC”.

The BBC has named Sir Richard Dearlove, head of MI6, in its submission to the inquiry, it emerged last night. Sir Richard is uniquely placed to comment on where Dr Kelly came in the intelligence hierarchy and what he may have known about changes to the Iraq dossier.

Clare Short, the former Secretary of State for International Development, last night directly blamed Dr Kelly’s death on an “abuse of power” by the Government.

“The truth needs to be found and those responsible need to be held to account,” she said in an interview with The Independent. “Alastair Campbell and Tony Blair work very, very closely together. They are all implicated, it seems to me.

“We all ended up mesmerised by Alastair Campbell attacking the BBC. In the course of that, De Kelly felt so pressured he felt the need to take his life. It has got enormous significance,” she adds.

“We must deal with Dr Kelly and the abuse of power that helped drive him to his death. But we must also deal with the questions of how we went to war with Iraq and how much half-truth and deceit there was on the way.”

Legal costs incurred by Dr Kelly’s widow as a result of being a witness to the inquiry into her husband’s death should be publicly funded, the Tories said. Mrs Kelly is expected to give evidence on her husband’s state of mind in the days before his death.

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