Danish premier accused of lying over Iraq war

A Danish military intelligence analyst fired for leaking confidential reports said yesterday that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen lied to lawmakers in 2002 when he sought their support for a US-led coalition to oust Saddam Hussain.

"We have a (prime) minister who has been lying," Major Frank Soeholm Grevil was quoted as telling the newspaper Information. "A minister who said something that is not in agreement with the truth. And he did it repeatedly."

Fogh Rasmussen was in Paris yesterday for talks with the French government. In the interview with the left-leaning paper, Soeholm Grevil claimed that Fogh Rasmussen had been given several separate reports that showed no proof of weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq.

"In connection with the war, Fogh Rasmussen said he knew that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, there were at least 10 reports on his desk whose content said the opposite," he said.

Information has been a vocal critic of Denmark's centre-right government for its backing of the US-led war in Iraq.

In October 2002, Fogh Rasmussen told parliament that Denmark's government was "convinced that the regime in Iraq today possesses weapons of mass destruction and missiles."

Fogh Rasmussen later said Denmark backed the invasion of Iraq and contributed troops because Saddam refused to cooperate with the UN. Denmark has 410 soldiers based in southern Iraq.

The government "explained what risks there were and this information was from the Danish Defence Intelligence Service," Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said. "You would not talk about a risk if there wasn't a risk."

Moeller brushed off calls by the opposition to launch an independent investigation of Denmark's participation in Iraq.

In a statement, the Danish intelligence service confirmed that Soeholm Grevil was the analyst fired after he leaked the contents of a secret report in February showing there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction to a newspaper.

"The former employee's claims and evaluation are his own," the intelligence service said. "In the period leading up to the Iraq war, it was the DDIS' overall evaluation that Iraq likely was in possession of weapons."