Did CIA warn UK to drop Niger claim?

The Government was accused yesterday of refusing a request from the CIA to drop references to Iraq's alleged efforts to buy uranium from Africa in its dossier of "evidence", despite the US agency warning that the claim could not be substantiated.

US officials said that last September ­ as Tony Blair was discussing Iraq with George Bush at Camp David ­ senior figures in the CIA tried to persuade Britain not to include the claim. The officials said Britain ignored the request, stating Saddam Hussein "sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa". A senior Bush administration official said: "We consulted about the paper and recommended against using that material."

In Washington last night, George Tenet, the Director of the CIA, said his agency should not have allowed President Bush to mention Africa when analysts had doubts about the quality of the intelligence.

"This was a mistake. These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the President," Mr Tenet said in a statement released after Bush and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, blamed the error on the CIA.

The claim about the UK's refusal to drop Africa from its dossier, published in The Washington Post, puts further pressure on Mr Blair to provide the evidence on which the uranium allegation was based.

Unlike the Bush administration, which admitted this week it ought not to have included the claim in the State of the Union speech on 28 January, Mr Blair is standing firm.

Mr Bush said in the speech that the alleged Niger deal had been uncovered by the British Government, rather than US intelligence. There are reports that this caveat was inserted only after the CIA said it could not substantiate it. This covered the White House because officials could say the CIA had authorised the speech.