Ex-adviser: 'Blair ignored Chirac's warnings on Iraq'

Ex-adviser: 'Blair ignored Chirac's warnings on Iraq'

LONDON -- A former top aide to Tony Blair said the British prime minister ignored French President Jacques Chirac's warnings that invading Iraq would have "disastrous" consequences, The Observer newspaper reported Sunday.

Sir Stephen Wall, formerly Blair's chief policy adviser, said Blair and his influential then-press chief Alastair Campbell deliberately misrepresented France's opposition to invading Iraq to justify going ahead with the operation.