The six-member commission, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Willibrord Davids, released its 551-page report on the invasion of Iraq on Tuesday. The report found that the wording of United Nations resolution 1441 on Iraq "cannot reasonably be interpreted (as the Dutch government did) as authorizing individual member states to use military force to compel Iraq to comply with the Security Council's Resolutions."

That 2002 UN resolution offered Iraq "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations."

The committee also found that the government ignored intelligence questioning the US claim that then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, and that the full contents of a 2002 US request for support were not made available to the parliamentarians deciding on the issue.

The Netherlands gave political but no military backing to the invasion carried out by a multinational force, including American and British troops. Suspicions of secret military support were rejected by the commission, which found no evidence of Dutch military involvement before or after the invasion. The Netherlands did send 1,100 troops to Iraq in July 2003 as part of a UN-mandated post-invasion stabilization force.

Prime Minister under fire

The report had particularly harsh words for Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, who held the same post in the run-up to the invasion. "The prime minister took little or no lead in debates on the Iraq question; he left the matter of Iraq entirely to the minister of foreign affairs," the committee wrote.

Speaking after the report was released, Balkenende welcomed the finding that no military support had been given.

"I am pleased that the commission could disprove these stubborn rumours," he said.

Balkenende said that the government would study the report in detail before givíng a fuller response.

Balkenende has repeatedly said that the Netherlands supported the invasion because of Saddam Hussein's refusal to follow UN Security Council resolutions. The Netherlands was one of only a few western European countries to support the Iraq war.

The parliamentary foreign affairs committee is to debate the commission's findings next Tuesday. There have already been calls from the left for a parliamentary inquiry into the issue.

An official inquiry has begun in London looking into the British government's decision to take part in the invasion with former Prime Minister Tony Blair set to testify in the coming weeks.

hf/AFP/AP/dpa
Editor: Michael Lawton