Portugal's centre-right government solidly backed the conflict on the grounds that the deposed Iraqi regime was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction -- the justification given by Washington and London for the war.

Durao Barroso said before the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq last March that he had seen intelligence reports proving the existence of the weapons.

But Washington's former chief weapons hunter David Kay said last month that pre-war intelligence was wrong and Iraq did not have stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons as alleged.

"The prime minister lied," Communist lawmaker Antonio Filipe told parliament.

"What we want to know is if he deliberately wanted to trick us all or if someone gave him information that tricked him."

Filipe called on Durao Barroso to go before parliament, and demanded that he declassify all Portuguese intelligence service reports relating to Iraq, used by the government to base its support for the war.

His call was backed by the main opposition Socialists and the far-left Left Block party.

"There are today strong doubts that there is any proof of the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," Socialist lawmaker Jose Saraiva said.

"The prime minister has the opportunity now to deny what he said or confirm that such documents exist."

Durao Barroso's government backed the war in the face of huge opposition from other parties and the public at large.

Antonio Nazare Pereira, a lawmaker from the ruling Social Democrats, responded to the onslaught by arguing the brutal nature of the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein alone justified the military intervention.

"If Saddam Hussein had a clear conscience he would not have acted the way he did," he said.

The deposed Iraqi leader was found by US soldiers on December 14 hiding in a hole under a mud hut near his home town of Tikrit in northern Iraq.

Lisbon allowed Washington to use a military base on its mid-Atlantic Azores archipelago during the military strike against Iraq and has contributed 130 national guards to a multinational stabilization force currently in the country.

In addition, Durao Barroso hosted a summit on the Azores islands in March between US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, just days before Bush ordered an attack on Iraq.

WAR.WIRE