LONDON, Feb. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair is facing mounting pressure on whether to hold an independent inquiry into prewar intelligence on Iraqi banned weapons -- the main reason he gave for war -- after Washington appeared to agree to such calls.

    Britain's main opposition Conservative leader Michael Howard is expected to put forward such a motion in the House of Commons this week and the second largest opposition Liberal Democrats has said the government must approve the probe.

    "Now I think it is quite clear that there does need to be an inquiry," Howard told BBC radio.

    "I hope the prime minister won't continue to be the odd man out, won't continue to be isolated on this," he said.

    "Washington is now dictating the British political agenda," said the Lib-Dem's foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell.

    Pressure has been growing on both sides of the Atlantic since David Kay, the man heading the weapons hunt, quit his post, saying intelligence suggesting former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons was wrong.

    However, ruling Labor cabinet ministers have dismissed the suggestion and insisted there is "categoric" evidence that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

    "We have been in close discussion with the US government in the last few days but we will not comment further until an official statement is made by the US," a Downing Street spokesman was quoted by a Sky News report as saying.

    Blair, who faces a grilling by a powerful parliamentary committee Tuesday over Iraqi banned weapons, has so far resisted calls to look at the quality of prewar Iraq intelligence.

    Polls issued by two British Sunday newspapers showed a majority of Britons demand an independent public inquiry into the government's evidence for the war with Iraq. Enditem