British media coverage of the war in Iraq has soared in the final days of the general election campaign, according to research.
Two weeks ago Iraq received 8 per cent of the election coverage in national newspapers, but that more than doubled to almost 18 per cent in recent days.
News monitoring service Factiva also revealed that more than 1,100 articles mentioned the words "Tony Blair" and "lie" or "liar" in April.
More than 8,300 articles mentioned the prime minister by name, compared with 4,700 with Conservative Party leader Michael Howard's name, and 2,200 mentioning Charles Kennedy, leader of the Lib Dems.
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There were more articles about Chelsea football club than either of the opposition leaders.