BLAIR WAR DOSSIER 'NOTHING NEW'

Saddam Hussein could build a nuclear weapon within two years, the government claimed today in its long-awaited dossier on Iraq.

The 55-page document was released this morning ahead of an emergency Commons debate on the crisis.

But the contents of the report were dismissed as "nothing new" by critics and military experts.

Major Charles Heyman, editor of military bible Jane's World Armies, said: "It does not produce any convincing evidence, or any 'killer fact', that says that Saddam Hussein has to be taken out straight away."

And Thomas Withington, defence analyst with King's College, London, said a lot of the information was old material re-hashed adding: "Nothing staggering, is it?

Labour MP and former defence minister Peter Kilfoyle said: "There are no new killer facts in this document."

"The dossier is a judgement. It's full of unsubstantiated assertions and allegations. There is nothing we don't already know."

Backbench MP George Galloway, a vocal critic of action against Iraq, demanded the return of UN weapons inspectors and called the claims in the dossier "pulp fiction".