Number 10 defends uranium claim

The search for weapons of mass destruction continues in Iraq

Downing Street says it stands by claims that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Africa despite reports that America asked the UK not to publish the allegation.

Friday's Washington Post newspaper says the CIA tried and failed to stop the UK Government including the claim in September's dossier about Iraqi weapons.

A row is raging in the US over the uranium claim, which the International Atomic Energy Agency said was based on forged documents.

On Friday, Tony Blair's official spokesman stressed the UK had published its claim on evidence separate from that used by America.

'Speech approved'

George Bush's national security adviser has said the CIA approved a speech the US president made in January, including a sentence that claimed Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Niger.

"The CIA cleared the speech in its entirety," Condoleezza Rice told reporters on Air Force One, en route from South Africa to Uganda.

US media reported on Thursday that the White House had ignored a CIA request to remove the accusation from Mr Bush's State of the Union address on 28 January.

Earlier this week, the White House acknowledged for the first time that the claim about Iraq seeking to buy uranium from Niger might be wrong.

But Ms Rice insisted the president "did not knowingly say anything that we knew to be false".

CIA's changes

In his January address, Mr Bush said: "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

But if anyone had any doubts about the uranium claim, "those doubts were not communicated to the president," Ms Rice told reporters.

However, she said the CIA did make some changes to that particular sentence in the speech.

"Some specifics about amount and place were taken out," she said.

"With the changes in that sentence the speech was cleared."