GEOFFREY Cox, MP for West Devon and Torridge, has condemned the Government's announcement of an inquiry into the Iraq War as 'fundamentally lacking'.

The comment was made during a Commons debate. Prime Minister Gordon Brown initially announced that the inquiry would be held in private but later suggested that the chairman, Sir John Chilcot, would choose whether to hold some hearings in public.

Mr Cox, who has been calling for a comprehensive inquiry into the war since his election four years ago, called for the evidence to be given in public, to be conducted under oath, and include professional cross-examination of witnesses such as former 10 Downing Street director of communications Alastair Campbell and former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

He also said that it was essential that parliament should debate and determine the terms of reference for the inquiry.

Mr Cox said: 'Nobody can deny that the events and circumstances of the Iraq war were of the greatest magnitude in the history of our nation. The war we are dealing with in the inquiry raises much more fundamental questions and will have a much stronger effect on history than the Falklands war fought in 1982.'

He claimed the methods the Government had chosen to set up the inquiry were fundamentally lacking and there were no terms of reference.

'We cannot leave it to a bunch of civil servants, however distinguished they might be, to decide the fundamental questions to address,' he said.

'The only way is to have an oath. The only way is to have cross-examination. The only way is to have the inquiry in public when compelling interests of national security do not require otherwise.'

Mr Cox said the only way was to have an inquiry that did justice to the gravity of the war and to have a committee that included men or women with experience, weight and wisdom in the relevant areas of this 'complicated issue'.