TONY Blair has condemned leaks as a deliberate attempt to pre-judge the Chilcot Inquiry on the Iraq war before the report is even complete.

With publication due in the autumn, Sir John Chilcot's inquiry is at the stage where draft sections of his report are being checked by key witnesses who are being asked to verify their evidence.

This prompted claims over the weekend that it will deliver a damning verdict on the former Prime Minister's handling of the Iraq War and the infamous justification for the 2003 invasion based on Saddam Hussein's sup-posed possession of weapons of mass destruction. The final report will also condemn Mr Blair's practice of by-passing full Cabinet Government and for the closeness of his relationship with US President George W Bush, according to leaks reported yesterday.

Criticisms are said to include the failure to present intelligence information properly, stripping out many of the caveats in MI6's briefing when presenting the Downing Street arms dossier in 2002, and so-called "sofa government" in which decisions are made by a trusted few senior figures.

Failures to reveal to fellow ministers an undertaking Mr Blair had reached with the US in the run-up to the invasion and the failure to prepare for the post-war reconstruction of Iraq are also reported to be highlighted within the draft.

Sir John, former head of the Northern Ireland Office, is said to have been particularly impressed by the evidence of former Cabinet Secretary Lord Butler criticising the style of the Blair Government.

Angus Robertson, the SNP's leader at Westminster, said: "The tapestry of deceit woven by Tony Blair over the past decade has finally unravelled.

"Despite his best attempts to fudge the issue when he was called to give evidence, the Chilcot inquiry has recognised the former prime minister's central role in leading the UK into worst foreign policy disaster in recent history."

A spokesman for Mr Blair said: "This is a deliberate attempt to pre-judge a report that hasn't even been written yet. We're not going to comment until it has been published."

A spokeswoman for the Chilcot Inquiry said: "We will not provide a running commentary on the inquiry. "

There has been speculation that Sir John and the members of his inquiry are planning to criticise Mr Blair when they publish their report in the autumn. Some members of the inquiry, including the former British ambassador to Moscow Sir Rod Lyne, put the former PM under pressure in his two appearances before them.

Members of the inquiry have gone no further than to say the best way to predict findings is to identify areas that were raised repeatedly by Sir John and his team when taking evidence.

Three key areas which fall into this category are the lack of proper cabinet consultation, the use of intelligence, and the failure to make preparations for the post-war reconstruction.

It is expected that the inquiry will take a dim view of the Downing Street dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, published on 24 September 2002. This included the notorious claim that Iraq could launch a WMD attack in 45 minutes.

The inquiry is also likely to criticise Alastair Campbell, Mr Blair's former director of communications, who was involved in drawing up the dossier. Mr Campbell has always maintained that Sir John Scarlett, then chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, was in charge of drafting the dossier.

However, Major General Michael Laurie's written evidence to the inquiry was that the dossier was designed to "make the case for war". It was Mr Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, who set up the Chilcot Inquiry after claims previous scrutiny had been inadequate to examine taking the country to war, with the loss of 179 service personnel, on grounds which proved false.