London: British Prime Minister Tony Blair provoked a storm on Saturday after apparently admitting that the invasion of Iraq by the United States and Britain was "a disaster."
Blair gave the surprise assessment of his decision to go to war in an interview with David Frost on Al-Jazeera's new English-language channel.
British opposition MPs seized on the comment as evidence that Blair has finally accepted that his strategy in the Middle Eastern state had failed.
British newspapers carried the story on their front pages on Saturday. "Iraq invasion a disaster, Blair admits on Arab TV," was the headline in the Daily Telegraph.
"PM Tony Blair last night sensationally admitted the Iraq War fallout has become 'disastrous,' reported Britain's biggest selling daily, The Sun.
Blair's remarks came after former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said he feared his country was on the verge of disintegration — a situation he said he never anticipated.
"It's really quite alarming and dangerous, where Iraq is now. It's quite frightening," he told CNN.
"Iraq is slipping continuously into a chaotic level of violence. "To be honest, this is not something that I could have imagined when we fought Saddam's regime."
Meanwhile in Iraq coalition and Iraqi troops in southeastern Iraq continued their hunt for five Western security contractors abducted the day before. (Full story)
Blair's Downing Street office insisted that the British PM's views had been misrepresented and that it was "disingenuous" to portray it as an admission, the UK's Press Association said.
During the interview, Frost suggested that the West's intervention in Iraq had "so far been pretty much of a disaster."
Blair replied: "It has, but you see what I say to people is why is it difficult in Iraq? It's not difficult because of some accident in planning, it's difficult because there's a deliberate strategy -- al Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other -- to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war."
Reacting to his comments, Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell said the Prime Minister should now apologise for his actions. He told PA: "At long last the enormity of the decision to take military action against Iraq is being accepted by the Prime Minister.
"It could hardly be otherwise as the failure of strategy becomes so clear. "If the prime minister accepts that it is a `disaster' then surely parliament and the British people who were given a flawed prospectus are entitled to an apology."
A Downing Street spokeswoman said Blair did not believe that the violence in Iraq had been a disaster. "He was simply acknowledging the question in a polite way before going on to explain his view.
"To portray it as some kind of admission is completely disingenuous," the spokeswoman told the BBC.
Blair used the interview to speak at length about British foreign policy in the Middle East and the continuing violence in Iraq. He reiterated his appeal to Iran and Syria to become partners of the West in the search for peace in the troubled region.
Blair rejected any suggestion that his readiness to work with two countries, until recently described by the US as part of the "axis of evil", was appeasement.
Meanwhile, The Islington Tribune reported that Trade Minister Margaret Hodge told a private meeting of Labour supporters that Blair was guilty of "moral imperialism."
Hodge told members of Islington's Fabian Society that the Iraq war was Blair's "big mistake in foreign affairs", the paper reported.
After her criticisms of the Prime Minister, she added: "I hope this isn't going to be reported," the newspaper claimed.
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