British Prime Minister Tony Blair was angered by U.S. refusal to share intelligence on Iraq with Britain, according to a report by The Sunday Times.

The newspaper reported that in a revealing new book by Bob Woodward, the veteran American journalist who exposed the Watergate scandal, Blair lodged complaints to President George W. Bush against the way intelligence was routinely marked NOFORN (no foreigners), which denied access to the U.S. closest ally.

In State of Denial, to be published on Monday, Woodward discloses that raw intelligence gathered by British operatives in Iraq and fused with the Americans' own data was stored on the classified Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET).

"The British couldn't see it, let alone get a copy, because it was marked NOFORN," Woodward writes.

British pilots flying U.S. warplanes such as F-117 Nighthawks and FO 15E Strike Eagles were even denied access to classified pilot manuals for the same reason, Woodward claims.

After complaints from Blair, Bush promised to lift the NOFORN restrictions, but the Pentagon simply began creating a new, separate SIPRNET to cut out the British, Woodward adds.

Source: Xinhua