Tony Blair has apparently admitted that the invasion of Iraq by the United States and Britain was a disaster.
The Prime Minister gave the frank assessment of his decision to go to war in an interview with Sir David Frost on al-Jazeera's new English-language channel.
Opposition MPs seized on the comment as evidence that Mr Blair has finally accepted that his strategy in the Middle Eastern state had failed.
But Downing Street insisted that Mr Blair's views had been misrepresented and that it was "disingenuous" to portray it as an admission.
During the interview, Sir David suggested that the West's intervention in Iraq had "so far been pretty much of a disaster".
Mr Blair replied: "It has, but you see what I say to people is why is it difficult in Iraq? It's not difficult because of some accident in planning, it's difficult because there's a deliberate strategy — al-Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other — to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war."
A Downing Street spokeswoman said Mr Blair did not believe that the violence in Iraq had been a disaster.
"He was simply acknowledging the question in a polite way before going on to explain his view.
"To portray it as some kind of admission is completely disingenuous," the spokeswoman told the BBC.
Mr Blair used the interview to speak at length about British foreign policy in the Middle East and the continuing violence in Iraq.
He reiterated his appeal to Iran and Syria to become partners of the West in the search for peace in the troubled region.
And Mr Blair rejected any suggestion that his readiness to work with two countries, until recently described by the US as part of the "axis of evil", was appeasement.
PA