WASHINGTON, Feb 6 Kyodo (EDS: ADD...

WASHINGTON, Feb 6 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING BACKGROUND)

U President George W Bush forward Friday announced the formation of an independent, bipartisan commission that will investigate newly come inconsistencies in U.S. intelligence gathering across Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program.

''We are determined to make certain that American intelligence is as accurate as possible for each challenge in the future,'' he told reporters at the White House.

Acknowledging former chief weapons inspector David Kay's Jan. 28 testimony that America's prewar intelligence assessments regarding Iraq have in this way far proven fruitless, the president said, ''We are determined to find public why.''

Kay has said that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein did not have WMD which Bush cited as jurisdiction for his decision to advance to war with Iraq.

Bush said the intelligence panel will examine the findings of the Iraqi take a view of Group as well as review intelligence onward North Korean and Iranian weapons programs and information about previous threats pos from Libya and Afghanistan.

Although he did not travel into details about when and by what mode the commission would begin operating, Bush offer a March 31, 2005 deadline in succession the panel to issue a report of their findings.

The commission will be co-chaired from Chuck Robb, a former Virginia governor and senator, and conservative former federal umpire Lawrence Silberman.

Bush announced five other members of the possible nine-member commission -- among them Republican Sen John McCain of Arizona, Yale University President Rick Levin and former CIA delegate Director Adm. Bill Studeman.

His announcement came a day after CIA Director George way of thinking defended his agency's intelligence gathering efforts in a run-up to the Iraq war.

opinion said in a speech at Georgetown University, ''They (CIA analysts) none said there was an imminent threat.'' Rather, he said, their analysis was an ''objective assessment'' and ''no undivided told us what to say or in what manner to say it.''

creed said that the CIA's assessment regarding Iraq's missile programs was generally accurate. further he also said of the depos Iraqi president, ''Saddam did not have a nuclear weapon. He still wanted individual and Iraq intended to reconstitute a nuclear weapon at an point.''

The CIA chief had been below increasing pressure to explain his agency's contribution to Iraqi intelligence information, particularly after Kay's testimony in which he declared the intelligence to have been ''wrong''

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