Washington, Feb. 2 (Reuters): President George W. Bush said today he would appoint an independent commission to investigate discrepancies in intelligence used to justify the war against Iraq, reversing earlier opposition to a probe. “I want to know all the facts,” he said.

He also said that before moving ahead with the commission, he wanted to meet soon with David Kay, the former chief US weapons hunter in Iraq, who told a congressional hearing last week that much of the intelligence about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction was wrong. “I appreciate his service,” Bush said of Kay.

Bush had come under strong pressure from Republicans and Democrats in Congress to support an independent probe into intelligence that said Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons when in fact none have been found.

Senior Bush administration officials said Bush would announce establishment of the commission in the next couple of days. Work was being done to select the expected nine members of the bipartisan commission.

The commission was expected to be given until next year to report back, instead of this year as Democrats demand.

This was seen as an attempt to avoid having the probe’s results emerge as a campaign issue, as Democratic challengers attempt to derail the President’s re-election bid in November.

Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s vice-chairman, told Fox News yesterday the probe had to get under way before the November election and should include how the intelligence was used by those who decided to go to war against Iraq last March.

A senior Democratic congressional said on Monday, ”It (the probe) needs to be immediate and transparant and everything needs to be on the table. For him to appoint a group of folks who look at it and then report back to him would question its independence. That will not satisfy the American people or the international community.”

Britain hint

In Britain, Tony Blair prepared the way today for an inquiry into apparent intelligence failings over Iraq after Washington bowed to calls for a probe into the justification given for war.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said the government would soon announce how it planned to address the “valid question” of the whereabouts of Iraqi WMD the main Anglo-American motive for the conflict.