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| Iraq war inquiry to be in private | Iraq war inquiry to be in private |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| An independent inquiry into the Iraq war will be held in private, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told MPs. | An independent inquiry into the Iraq war will be held in private, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told MPs. |
| Opposition parties - and many Labour MPs - have been calling for the probe since shortly after the 2003 invasion. | Opposition parties - and many Labour MPs - have been calling for the probe since shortly after the 2003 invasion. |
| The inquiry will cover July 2001 to July 2009 and be chaired by Sir John Chilcot, Mr Brown told MPs. | The inquiry will cover July 2001 to July 2009 and be chaired by Sir John Chilcot, Mr Brown told MPs. |
| It will begin work next month and take at least a year, Mr Brown said. Its aim will be to identify "lessons learned" and not to "apportion blame", he said. | It will begin work next month and take at least a year, Mr Brown said. Its aim will be to identify "lessons learned" and not to "apportion blame", he said. |
| The government had been urged to hold the inquiry in public, but Mr Brown said he must take into account national security, and avoid damaging Britain's military capability. | |
| The prime minister added that it would hear evidence in private so witnesses can be "as candid as possible". | The prime minister added that it would hear evidence in private so witnesses can be "as candid as possible". |
| Mr Brown said the final report would reveal "all but the most secret of information" and the "unprecedented" process would be "fully independent of government". | Mr Brown said the final report would reveal "all but the most secret of information" and the "unprecedented" process would be "fully independent of government". |
| But the prime minister was jeered by Conservative MPs when he announced that the inquiry would take a year to report - beyond the date of the next general election. | |
| Tory leader David Cameron said that, because of this, there was a danger the public would believe the process had been "fixed". | |
| Sir John Chilcot, 70, is a former permanent under-secretary of state at the Northern Ireland Office and has been chairman since 2001 of the Police Federation and sat on the Butler Inquiry into the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. |