Former British cabinet minister Clare Short has claimed that Tony Blair's government put a 'block on communications' with her ahead of the Iraq war.
Giving evidence at the Iraq inquiry, Ms Short, who was the International Development Secretary and one of the most vocal critics of the war, said intelligence briefings 'just didn't come her way' in late 2002.
She later resigned and became an independent MP.
Ms Short also said she warned Mr Blair before the Iraq war began that the US was unprepared for running the country after the invasion.
Ms Short said she alerted the then-prime minister to a 'possible humanitarian crisis' unless aid agencies were given more time prior to invasion.
She said the US body set up to rebuild post-invasion Iraq, the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, was 'under-staffed, under-resourced and under-prepared for the scale of the challenge'.
Ms Short wrote to Mr Blair on 5 March 2003, two days before British Attorney General Lord Goldsmith advised Mr Blair the invasion could be legal without a second UN Security Council Resolution and 13 days before the House of Commons voted in favour of the conflict.
Ms Short wrote to the prime minister: 'You should be aware that the US and the international humanitarian community are not properly prepared to deal with the immediate humanitarian concerns.'
She continued: 'A little more time would make the US much better able to deal with some of the humanitarian consequences of conflict.'
Ms Short resigned as international development secretary nearly eight weeks after the invasion on 20 March 2003 and became an outspoken critic of Mr Blair's handling of the conflict.
