British views on Iraq ignored by US-UK minister

LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) Britain disagreed with the United States on major issues to do with Iraq but its opinion was ignored at the highest level, Britain's former defence minister said in an interview published today.

Geoff Hoon, now Britain's minister for Europe, said top ministers disapproved of the US decision in May 2003 to disband the Iraqi army and rid the Iraqi civil service of members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party but were rebuffed.

He said it felt at times as if the US vice president, Dick Cheney, was making the final decision on key issues, even after Prime Minister Tony Blair had made his point to President George W. Bush and other British ministers had also spoken out.

''Sometimes... Tony had made his point with the president, and I'd made my point with Don (Rumsfeld) and Jack (Straw) had made his point with Colin (Powell) and the decision actually came out of a completely different place.

''And you think: what did we miss? I think we missed Cheney,'' Hoon told the Guardian newspaper in an interview.

''We certainly argued against (the US administration).'' Hoon said he had argued with the former US defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, over the disbanding of Iraq's 350,000-strong army, a decision that contributed to the insurgency by putting armed and angry men out of work.

The purging of Baath party members from government offices also exacerbated problems in administering Iraq after the invasion and was a decision Britain did not support, he said.

Hoon, who served as defence minister from 1999 until 2005, also said post-war planning in Iraq had been inadequate, and Britain and the United States misread how Iraqis would react to the overthrow of Saddam.

REUTERS ABM RK1503