SADDAM'S Hussein's lawyer has told how he tried to get Tony Blair to reach an agreement with the dictator to prevent the Iraq war.

As Britain and America prepared for war Sarosh Zaiwalla, who lives in Kingston Gorse, near Littlehampton, was asked by the Iraq government to try to get Britain to negotiate a deal to avoid the war.

Mr Zaiwalla said that he had been asked to broker a deal between Blair and Hussein and strongly hinted to the then prime minister that Saddam would agree to be “sent to one of the islands with a few million dollars”.

Mr Zaiwalla said he had the unique opportunity to approach the prime minister - who had worked as a junior barrister for his firm - but said Mr Blair refused to meet with the Iraq government

Mr Zaiwalla said the deal was never achieved because "it was clear he had a closed mind".

Speaking to The Argus he said: "I do believe it could have prevented the war.

"They were prepared to negotiate.

"I spoke to Tony about it and he listened to me for about 15 to 20 minutes.

"All options were open for discussion. I had mentioned this precisely to him when I met him. He said 'write to me'. I was acting for the Iraqi government.

"I was consulted on a different issue and they said to me can you get them talking.

"There was a possibility at that time.

"They were prepared to negotiate.

"The Iraqi government said that they would send a diplomatic signal in the usual way."

The Chilcot report found evidence the UK government was too close to America and Blair sent messages to Bush saying "I will be with you whatever".

Mr Zaiwalla first wrote to Mr Blair in April 2002, receiving a letter from his office the same month.

He then wrote again to the Prime Minister in March 2003 urging "these are troubled times and for the sake of world peace no channel of communication should go unexplored."

But Downing Street again sent him a reply declining the offer to meet.

When asked whether he agreed that Tony Blair had a pre-existing agreement with George Bush, Mr Zaiwalla said "I didn't have any evidence of that, but it was clear they had a closed mind."

He said: "I was no stranger to Tony He worked for me as a barrister.

"He knows me very well and I consider him a friend. "But it was clear he had a closed mind.

"The Iraqis wanted to see if they could find a way out of this, but they were not successful.

"You can't just blame Tony Blair. It was a policy decision taken by the western powers to bring in democracy, but Iraq wasn't right for democracy at that time.

"The second Gulf war might well have been avoided if there had been a genuine will on the part of those in power at that time to avoid the war and with it hundred and thousands of lives would not have been lost and Europe would not now be facing the refugee problem.

"The Iraqi regime at that time was keen to find a face saving way to exit but there was a closed mind on our side to explore any such possibility.

"This was most unfortunate. However, as the Prime Minister has said, it is our and the state’s duty to learn from previous errors, and the world must now learn to address future potential conflicts and international relations with the utmost care and an open mind.”

Mr Zaiwalla's law firm began working for an Iraqi government owned bank before being asked to commence proceedings for the Iraqi government against the USA and UK at the International Court of Justice in The Hague over the “no fly zone”.