He offered his total support for the war at a secret White House summit as Mr Bush displayed his contempt for the UN, made a series of wild threats against Saddam Hussein and showed a devastating ignorance about the catastrophic aftermath of the war.

Based on access to information at the highest level, the book by leading British human rights lawyer Philippe Sands QC, Professor of Law at London University, demonstrates how the two men decided to go to war regardless of whether they obtained UN backing.

The revelations make a nonsense of Mr Blair's claim that the final decision was not made until MPs voted in the Commons 24 hours before the war - and could revive the risk of him being charged with war crimes or impeached by Parliament itself.

The book also makes serious allegations concerning the conduct of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer and Attorney General Lord Goldsmith over Goldsmith's legal advice on the war.

And it alleges the British Government boasted that disgraced newspaper tycoon Conrad Black was being used by Mr Bush's allies in America as a channel for pro-war propaganda in the UK via his Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The leaks are contained in a new version of Sands' book Lawless World, first published last year, when it emerged that Lord Goldsmith had told Mr Blair the war could be unlawful - before a lastminute U-turn.

The new edition, to be published by Penguin on Thursday, is likely to cause a fierce new controversy on both sides of the Atlantic.

It follows recent charges against two British men under the Official Secrets Act after a transcript of another conversation between Mr Bush and Blair, in which the President raised the possibility of bombing the Al Jazeera Arab TV station, was leaked by a Whitehall official.

Both governments will be horrified that the stream of leaks revealing the grim truth about the war is turning into a flood. The most damaging new revelation concerns the meeting between Mr Blair and Mr Bush at the White House on January 31, 2003, during which Mr Blair urged the President to seek a second UN resolution giving specific backing for the war.

The Mail on Sunday has established that the meeting was attended only by Mr Blair, his Downing Street foreign policy adviser Sir David Manning, Mr Bush and the President's then national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, plus an official note-taker.

The top-secret record of the meeting was circulated to a tiny handful of senior figures in the two administrations.

Immediately afterwards, the two leaders gave a Press conference in which a nervous-looking Mr Blair claimed the meeting had been a success. Mr Bush gave qualified support for going down the UN route. But observers noted the awkward body language between the two men. Sands' book explains why. Far from giving a genuine endorsement to Mr Blair's attempt to gain full UN approval, Mr Bush was only going through the motions. And Mr Blair not only knew it, but went along with it.

The description of the January 31 meeting echoes the recent memoirs of Britain's former ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer.

Meyer, who was excluded from the private session between Blair and Bush, claimed the summit marked the culmination of the Prime Minister's failure to use his influence to hold back Mr Bush.

Equally significantly, Meyer was puzzled by Blair's behaviour when the two leaders emerged to join other aides. Meyer writes: "We were all milling around in the State dining room as Bush and Blair put the final touches to what they were going to say to the media."

"Bush had a notepad on which he had written a form of words on the second resolution...He read it out...There was silence. I waited for Blair to say he needed something as supportive as possible. He said nothing. I waited for somebody on the No 10 team to say something. Nothing was said. I cursed myself afterwards for not piping up."

"At the Press conference, Bush gave only a perfunctory and lukewarm support for a second resolution. It was neither his nor Blair's finest performance."

In view of Sands' disclosures, Blair had every reason to look awkward: he knew that despite his public talk of getting UN support, privately he had just committed himself to going to war no matter what the UN did.

When, in due course, the UN refused to back the war, Mr Blair seized on the fact that French President Jacques Chirac said he would not support any pro-war resolution, claiming that the French veto was so 'unreasonable' that a UN vote was pointless. In reality, Bush and Blair had decided to go to war before Chirac uttered a word.

The disclosures will be seized on by anti-war critics in Britain, including Left-wing MPs who say Mr Blair should be impeached for his handling of the war.

However, Ministers will argue that after three major British inquiries into the war, and with thousands of British troops due to be sent home from Iraq this year, it is time to move on.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said last night: "These matters have been thoroughly investigated and we stand by our position."

"THIS country cannot be conquered or dominated, because as long as there is one patriot alive, he or she will be fighting. We are invulnerable militarily and politically, and we are marching toward economic invulnerability as well."

Those were the comments of President Fidel Castro during a question-and-answer session with reporters near the Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist Tribunal, where construction work is underway to expand that venue, an outgrowth of the current battle of ideas.

In response to a question on how he sees Cuba's relations with the rest of the world, the revolutionary leader said that he could see how The Empire was surrounded by contempt and repugnance because of its many crimes and the torture committed in various countries, and in contrast, how our country is surrounded by growing sympathy and admiration, because of its firmness and ability.

He asserted that these merits are historic and cannot be concealed. "We sow ideas and consciousness. We have means for helping the world; our human capital is growing and is not running out, because it is not gold, or oil or nickel."

Fidel asked for patience from journalists, who, with their typical curiosity, wanted to know what exactly what was being built in front of the offices of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. He confined himself to saying that in the face of the new and insolent provocation by the general staff of the counterrevolution in Cuba, "we were obliged to respond."

[Editor's Note: The U.S. Diplomatic Mission on Havana erected an LED sign to send messages to Cubans who look at the building. In response to this, Fidel has responded in kind, erecting a similar device opposite the U.S. Diplomatic building, beaming its own messages to the Americans.]

"The world is in real danger, because they [the United States] have a monopoly on nuclear weapons, and it bothers them when a country like Iran wants to produce nuclear energy," the Cuban president said.

"They have no right to prohibit that nation from peacefully using nuclear energy," he affirmed. "Under the pretext that doing so is a threat, they are even talking about attacking that country."

He added that they [Washington] have never complained about the nuclear arms in Israeli possession, and noted that in Angola, South Africa considered using those horrific weapons against us.

ONLY THE TRUTH CAN SAVE THIS SPECIES

"The world will disappear if it is not courageous enough to reject the warmongering policies of Bush, who used the atrocious attacks of September 11 as an excuse. Emboldened, he spoke of attacking a list of 60 countries, including European nations like The Netherlands; they even spoke of invading The Netherlands."

"Not even Hitler said that; Hitler looked for pretexts, but Bush is attacking more brazenly and has many more weapons; he is crazy, and the world is in real danger. Only the truth can save this species," Fidel said.

He noted that Cuba had its own experience with nuclear weapons 44 years ago, when a "shadow" was hanging over our country, and we didn't blink; nobody trembled. He is an unbridled crazy man; some people over there might fear him, but we're not at all afraid."

With respect to the imperialist attempt to free murderer Luis Posada Carriles, the Cuban president noted that for 40 years, that individual has maintained contact with the U.S. intelligence services, which are responsible for planning hundreds of assassination attempts against Fidel's person, most recently in Panama, when almost 50 kilograms of explosives were seized from Posada. The blast would have killed hundreds of students. "They tried and convicted him there, but later it was Bush that got him out of jail, and now they won't even dare say how he entered U.S. territory."
RealVideoDeclassified Record of Former CIA Operative, Luis Posada Carriles ]

"By invoking the Convention against Torture, they refuse to return him to Venezuela, even though are no death squads and there is no death penalty in Venezuela. A coup d'état happened there, and its masterminds are still on the loose. If this were about torture, then the first one convicted would have to be Bush, because he has committed torture all over the world."

In addition, Fidel qualified the U.S. Interests Section in Havana as a smuggling enterprise. Last year, that office brought in more than 100 tons of products - cameras, videos, radios, to better receive the broadcasts of the ill-named Radio and TV Martí - using the diplomatic pouch. [Radio Marti is A U.S.-Run Radio and TV Station that Beams News and Information Into Cuba. RealVideo]

After revealing that it is also a place through which enormous sums of money are channeled to promote the counterrevolution and create destabilization in the country, he also emphasized that its employees have increasingly less oxygen.

When he began talking to reporters, Fidel commented that "it was not very intelligent of them to put out their little signboard again," referring to the U.S. Interests Section electronic billboard.

He explained that the Bush government is trying to please the mafia that handed him the presidency, and who are now pressing him to place restrictions on migration and thus promote illegal departures.

[Editor's Note: When discussing "illegal departures" Castro refers to Cubans who attempt to escape to the United States by boat. Under the Cuban Adjustment Act, Cubans who reach the U.S. mainland by boat are offered generous asylum opportunities].

"It's a big mistake to encourage illegal departures, which is something that violates their own laws. One of their own newspapers recently called this 'craziness;' and said that they should get rid of the so-called Cuban Adjustment Act."

It completely contradicts their battle against illegal immigration by Latin Americans who are trying to escape the poverty of their underdeveloped countries, and who harbor illusions about the consumer society." And he pointed out that meanwhile, they are building a giant wall where 500 Mexicans die every year, more than all of those that died trying to pass the Berlin Wall.

He added: "They are making a very big mistake, because they are incapable of understanding the changes that our country is going through at the moment; they thought that Cuba had only a few days left, and although our people have had to make many sacrifices, they have been capable of resisting," he affirmed, adding that the world has changed, and that Latin America had also changed.

"They think that we're still in 1995," he said, "but 10 years have gone by, and today our consciousness is more solid."

"They have tried to prevent U.S. farmers from exporting to Cuba, but what has happened is that Cuba has become one of their main importers. They are trying to create a situation to prevent that trade, but we are prepared for all contingencies," he reiterated.

"Cuba has become a moral fortress. We have the means of helping the world," he declared.

WE WILL BE AT THE BASEBALL CLASSIC

"We'll all be at the Baseball Classic RealVideo, fighting fair and square, even though they have robbed us of some good players, the ones they've offered millions of dollars to, to bribe and corrupt them," Fidel said.

He described as stupidity the attempt to prevent Cuba from attending that tournament, and said it was very positive that many people protested when they found out that Cuba was being denied the possibility of participating.

"We have shown our quality during international competitions, in matches against Major League players, who have even come here," he noted.

"The imperialists feel powerless before us, because they cannot destroy the Revolution."

Further on, the Cuban president affirmed that our currency is strong, while the dollar is at Cuba's mercy and is worth whatever we want it to be worth here.

He reiterated that the revolutionary government will always be ready to assist workers and retirees.

REVOLUTIONARY THAT NEVER SURRENDERED

Fidel affirmed that he believes in humanity and in the talent of the human species, which is capable of overcoming the most difficult moments.

Schafik Handal

Remarking on the stature of those who, fervently and with anti-imperialist positions lead their people today, such as Evo Morales and Hugo Chávez, Fidel referred to another recently deceased great revolutionary, Salvadoran patriot Schafik Handal, an impeccable man who never gave in or surrendered.

"All of those values give us life," he concluded.

The MoD admitted yesterday that hundreds more may have been injured in combat and that it was unlikely that injuries sustained by soldiers during the war itself had been included in the total. It is now reviewing the information and has promised to issue more figures in the next couple of weeks.

A spokesman said: "At the moment this is the only figure we have got. We simply can't tell you how many people have been injured in Iraq. We have been absolutely clear about this - it is never going to be precise. There will be many, many more injuries that would not require admission to a hospital."

The spokesman said there were problems in defining when a soldier had been injured in combat and he said that during the war itself, staff were too busy to record how many soldiers were treated and in what circumstances.

"These are not great statistics," he said. "We are fully aware that there may have been hundreds of others with superficial injuries but we don't have those figures."

The MoD rarely publicises figures for injuries sustained in operations in Iraq and many of those that have been reported have only come to light because the incidents have involved fatalities.

However, analysis of the MoD's own statements, interviews with senior officers and published reports of casualties from Iraq shows there have been more than 230 injuries. A study of reports from Iraq filed over the past three years found reference to 263 wounded soldiers, but uncovered evidence to suggest that the MoD routinely under-reports casualties. Military analysts believe that the true figure is closer to 800.

In a number of instances it was possible to show that the MoD issued incorrect information about specific incidents in which soldiers were injured.

In August 2003 eyewitness reports from Basra suggested that a number of British soldiers had been injured in rioting. This was denied by the MoD, only for the soldiers' commanding officer, Lt Col Jorge Mendonca, to reveal a few days later in an interview that they had suffered 21 casualties, some with stab wounds.

And the MoD's own figures do not tally with the evidence. In November 2003 Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister, said 145 Britons had been wounded in action, but the Scotsman investigation found that, even using the partial record available through published incidents, there had been at least another 188 casualties since then, giving a total of 333.

Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, demanded to know why the MoD was unable to publish accurate figures.

"This is not good enough," he said. "The British public and our servicemen and women deserve to have a much clearer picture of what is happening in Iraq."

Angus Robertson, the SNP defence spokesman, said:

"Every effort must be taken to establish the true figure so that we can understand the human cost of supporting this unpopular war," he said.

"Otherwise the MoD runs the risk of accusations of a cover-up."

Military experts expressed astonishment at the casualty figure given out by Dr Reid. Charles Heyman, a former British army staff officer and now editor of Armed Forces of the UK, said the MoD was clearly not telling the truth.

"They are being totally disingenuous," he said. "I suspect that they are making a serious mistake here."

Mr Heyman expressed astonishment at the MoD's claim that it did not have details of casualty figures. "You monitor the sick rates as much as you monitor the ammunition," he said.

He revealed that the army routinely recorded details of injuries on NOTICAS (notification of casualty) forms when a soldier received treatment. He said medical facilities then classified the injured as those able to return to duty within 24 hours, within seven days, within 30 days and those who were marked down for indefinite treatment. The MoD claims it only has two categories: wounded in action or disease and non-battle injury.

Mr Heyman said he would expect to see a British casualty rate of approximately 800 wounded in the Iraq campaign.

"The figure that we use for a modern, conventional military operation is that for every guy killed between eight and ten are injured," he said.

Bruce George, Labour MP and former chairman of the Commons defence committee, said he did not believe that the MoD figure could be accurate.

And Clive Fairweather, former second in command of the SAS, said he did not believe the government figures. "It is not good enough," he said. "We need to know this. It seems terribly low. I would be very surprised if that were true."

The MoD has repeatedly rebuffed attempts to establish how many British soldiers have been injured in Iraq, claiming it does not compile such statistics. Military sources claim this is untrue and that casualty figures are readily available to the MoD. The US routinely publishes the number of its soldiers injured in Iraq.

Asked how the MoD evaluated the success of its operations and the effectiveness of its tactics without referring to the number of casualties sustained, a spokeswoman said: "We don't judge whether operations are a success or efficient or not by the amount of people that are injured or killed. We judge success on whether we have achieved specific military aims, and in the case of Iraq, whether the Iraqis have a competent, democratic government and police force."

De Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head on a London Underground train at Stockwell station in south London.

He was killed on July 22 last year, the day after an alleged attempt to replicate the July 7 attacks by four suspected suicide bombers which killed 52 innocent Underground and bus commuters.

The alleged cover-up meant the blame for the tragedy would have been pinned on senior Met Police commanders or the armed police who fired the bullets -- leaving them open to murder charges, the newspaper said.

The revelations are apparently contained in the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC)'s report into the death, which was delivered to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) 10 days ago.

A Special Branch officer mistakenly reported that De Menezes was Hussein Osman, 27, who is facing charges of conspiracy to murder in connection with the July 21 incident.

However, once they realised their fatal error, the log was altered to read that no positive identification had been made.

A government department source told the tabloid: "It says the log was actually tampered with in a major way.

"In particular the words AND and NOT were inserted about the Osman ID, so it read 'and it was not Osman' rather than 'it was Osman'."

The log was allegedly changed at a debriefing meeting 10 hours after the Brazilian was gunned down.

It had been produced by colleagues of the officers listening to the team's radio messages.

During the debriefing, the officers were allowed to check for errors and amend them -- but crucially, the alterations were not explained and signed as they apparently should have been.

The newspaper quoted the IPCC report as reading: "This looks like an attempt to try and distance Special Branch from the decision (to shoot De Menezes)."

The source said: "It was blatant, it was clumsy."

"By doing that forgery they potentially made their colleagues back at the control room at central command at the Yard (police headquarters), and particularly their firearm officer colleagues, liable to be out in the dock for murder."

An IPCC spokesman said the organisation "would neither confirm nor deny" anything in the alleged leak.

"We do not comment on speculation," he said.

Asad Rehman, who represents the victim's family, said the alleged leak strengthened relatives' demands to see the report.

"From the family's perspective this is just one more in a long line in lies and deception surrounding the circumstances of Jean's death."

"It makes them more adamant to learn how and why he died. The only way that can be done is by a full public inquiry.

"They are at the end of their tether in the manner the whole death has been treated. There has been such a catalogue of disaster surrounding this case."

The IPCC investigates deaths with either direct or indirect police involvement as a matter of course. The CPS handles criminal cases and is expected to take several months to decide whether to bring charges.

"And it is good because anybody with any ounce of understanding of politics knows that when Tony Blair and Gordon Brown work together we are a winner and when they are divided our opponents can divide us and it is as simple as that," Blunkett said.

"So good on them. And whether it is a year or two years, it actually will be a sensible process of combining the talents that we have," said Blunkett, who is blind and whose guide dog sat with him during the interview.

Blair has vowed to serve out his third consecutive term as prime minister, which he began in May 2005, but promised not to run for a fourth.

Blunkett said it was "self-evident" that Brown would take over from Blair.

Brown's allies within the governing Labour Party have been pushing for an early transition of power. Blunkett's comments are the clearest indication yet that Brown could be given the job well before the next election.

Blunkett, who resigned last November amid controversy over his business dealings, is now working as a columnist for Britain's most widely read tabloid, the Sun.

Blunkett was one of the best-known figures in Blair's government, both because of his straight-talking populism and also his rise to prominence from childhood poverty and life-long blindness.

His resignation in November was his second in less than a year. In December 2004, he stepped down as interior minister because of a visa scandal linked to his colourful love life with a glamourous, married magazine publisher.

"In view of the importance of the matter, I suggest the government and AWB Ltd remain in close contact in order that we can jointly attempt to achieve a satisfactory outcome in the longer term," Howard wrote to CEO Andrew Lindberg.

Shortly afterwards, Lindberg and officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) visited Baghdad and secured the lucrative wheat contracts, allegedly by agreeing to pay increased kickbacks.

"We were in no way involved with the payment of bribes," Howard told national radio Monday. "We didn't condone them, we didn't have knowledge of them, but we did work closely with AWB.

"I make no bones about that. I had no reason to believe that AWB Ltd wasn't just going all out to preserve Australia's wheat sales to Iraq," he said.

A United Nations report last year charged that AWB had paid some 220 million dollars in kickbacks to secure 2.3 billion dollars in wheat contracts with Saddam's Iraq under the now-discredited oil-for-food programme.

The programme allowed Iraq to export a limited amount of oil to buy food and medicine through the UN to lessen the impact of sanctions on civilians.

Howard said he had met with the AWB after Lindberg's return from Baghdad and was "pleased" that the wheat exporter had resolved the problem.

Asked whether he knew how the AWB achieved the favourable outcome, Howard said: "No they didn't go into any detail; we had no suspicion, no suggestion there had been any bribes paid."

Howard established the commission of inquiry into the formerly government-run Australian Wheat Board under former judge Terry Cole in November.

The commission's terms of reference restrict it to examining allegations of wrongdoing by private companies, not the government.

The opposition Labor Party is pressing for the terms of reference to be widened to allow the commission to investigate the government's role in the scandal.

Foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said the letters tied the government closely to the process of deceiving the UN and funnelling money to the Iraqi dictator's regime.

The documents "provide dramatic new evidence of the close, intimate and systematic contact between the AWB and the Howard government at the highest level during the life of the 300 million (220 million US) dollar scandal," he said.

"Yet the Howard government wants to somehow cause us all to believe that only the AWB and not themselves should be under the scrutiny of an inquiry."

Howard said that in 2002 the government was facing pressure to preserve Australian wheat sales to Iraq while maintaining opposition to Saddam's regime.

"And by writing to AWB Ltd, that's exactly what I was doing and I don't find this letter embarrassing," he said.

Earlier evidence at the Cole inquiry showed the government, through DFAT and its mission to the UN in New York, had been warned that AWB was engaged in activities that flouted UN sanctions.

The commission is due to report by the end of March.

The explosion occurred at around 2:00 am (0100 GMT) Sunday and caused considerable damage to an employment agency,

Police arrived on the scene shortly before the blast, after a citizen reported a suspect rucksack left outside the employment agency.

The bomb was similar to explosives used by ETA in two blasts early Thursday in the Basque region, in which no one was injured.

ETA has been blamed for some 800 deaths in a campaign spanning more than four decades to create an independent Basque state incorporating parts of northern Spain and southwestern France.

But it has been weakened by the arrests of several key leaders on both sides of the Pyrenees.

Two suspected ETA members were arrested Saturday in southwestern France after being chased by police following a traffic accident.

"I would like to offer my sincere congratulations for your electoral success," Chirac said as he began the call.

"We have excellent relations and I am certain that they will continue in the best spirit," the French leader said.

Using an exaggerated accent, Audette, posing as the victorious Canadian Conservative Party leader, complained to Chirac that French media had given him a "bad reputation" and hoped this could be improved.

"I do not have any concerns and French leaders have no concerns. You cannot stop the press from saying anything at all. It's true in Canada and it's true in France," Chirac told 'Harper'.

When Chirac added an invitation to 'Harper' to visit France, the fake Canadian prime minister-elect replied that he had already planned to visit France "as the opening act" in a show by Canadian singer Garou.

Told at the end of the conversation that he was talking to Canadian radio, Chirac was philosophical.

"Ah yes, I understand," he said, adding anyway, "Know that my friendship to Canada and to the new Conservative government is a true, unreserved friendship."

Audette told AFP that it only took Chirac's office a half hour to respond to the duo's enquiry with the news that the French president would be calling back momentarily.

Chirac was "very genial at the end of the call," he said.

Chirac was the most recent in a long list of famous people on the receiving end of the 'Masked Avengers' prank calls. The duo have also managed to talk to Irish rock star Bono, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, singers Céline Dion and Britney Spears and flamboyant US tycoon Donald Trump.