A KENT MP has launched a blistering attack against a war in Iraq, saying the case is "ill-proven".

In a speech in the Commons, Bob Marshall-Andrews, who represents the Medway constituency, accused the USA itself of supporting terror groups and military dictatorships.

He told MPs: "Those of us who oppose this war do so because we believe that it is ill-proven and unnecessary I am neither by nature nor by inclination a pacifist."

Mr Marshall-Andrews said it had been implied by another MP that he was "hand wringing". But he said: "If I had coherent evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction trained on my constituents in Medway, my opposition to the war would not be based on any form of clammy, wet liberalism.

"There is no such evidence. The motivation for this war is suspect in the extreme and those outside the House know that it is so."

Mr Marshall-Andrews called the United States an "uncontested, uncontrolled superpower''.

He added: "There is no country in the world in my lifetime that has given aid, succour and encouragement to more terrorist groups, more military dictatorships and more rogue states.

"One recollects the corrupt Diem regime in Vietnam; the overthrow of the democratically elected Government of Salvador Allende (in Chile) and the support of the Contra guerillas in Nicaragua. One recollects the support of Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran."

Mr Marshall-Andrews stressed he was against the Iraqi despot and was not anti-American, saying it has also done a lot for peace.