Britain's military chiefs were suddenly included in top secret US planning for an invasion of Iraq in the months following a private meeting between Tony Blair and President Bush, the Iraq inquiry heard yesterday.

Major-General David Wilson, then Britain's military adviser at US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, said he was given absolutely no access to war planning on Iraq when he arrived at the facility prior to the leaders' meeting in April 2002, saying he "would have been shot" had he attempted to muscle in on the talks. However, US co-operation changed abruptly two months later.

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