British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday rejected charges from the Conservative opposition that he "misrepresented" intelligence used to make the case for invading Iraq.

"I cannot say I misrepresented (it)," Blair said in reply to a challenge from Conservative leader Michael Howard during question time in parliament.

Howard asked Blair to apologise for "misrepresenting" the intelligence, rather than for actually waging war, a move the Conservative Party supported.

"I indeed apologise for any information given in good faith but which subsequently turned out to be wrong," Blair said in the House of Commons. "I've already done so."

"What I don't in any way accept is that there was any deception in any way. That is what has been looked into by four different independent inquiries and in each case that allegation has turned out to be wrong," Blair said.

"I will not apologise for removing Saddam Hussein and I will not apologize for the conflict which I believe was right then, is right now, is essential for the wider security of that region and the world," the prime minister said.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Jack Straw had also faced Conservative demands in the Commons for a "full apology" for the way the government made its case for war.

But Straw merely referred MPs to the qualified apology Blair had given his Labour Party conference two weeks earlier.

Straw told MPs that the head of British intelligence service MI6, John Scarlett, had written to lawmakers "formally withdrawing" two pre-war claims about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

These concerned intelligence on Iraq's ability to produce biological agents and to mount an attack using weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.