The US administrator in Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, today contradicted a claim by British prime minister Mr Blair when he rejected reports that inspectors had found a network of laboratories that could be used to produce banned weapons.
In a pre-Christmas broadcast on the British Forces Broadcasting Service, Mr Blair said the Iraq Survey Group had already found "massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories".
Asked on ITV's Dimbleby programme about those words, the US administrator for Iraq, apparently unaware they came from Blair, was dismissive.
"It sounds like a bit of a red herring to me. It sounds like somebody who doesn't agree with the policy, sets up a red herring and then knocks it down," he said.
When it was pointed out that it was Mr Blair who had publicised those claims, Mr Bremer appeared to row back a little. "There is a lot of evidence that has been made public," he said.
A spokeswoman in Mr Blair's Downing Street office said the prime minister had been referring to material published in the weapons inspection group's interim report earlier this year.
The existence, or otherwise, of chemical and biological weapons in Iraq remains a huge issue for Mr Blair despite Saddam Hussein's capture earlier this month.
Mr Blair told a sceptical public that war on Iraq was necessary because of the threat posed by its banned weapons. Nine months after Saddam was toppled, not one of the weapons he claimed the Iraqi leader had primed for use has been found.