Blair's concern at BAE fraud probe

Tony Blair raised concerns with his attorney general that a fraud investigation into BAE-Saudi relations could wreck a lucrative new arms deal less than a week before the probe was scrapped, it has emerged.

Amid uproar at the abandonment of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) inquiry into the Al Yamamah contract from the 1980s, the then prime minister insisted at the time the decision was taken on security grounds - not commercial interests.

But a newly-released letter from Mr Blair to Lord Goldsmith, then attorney general, shows that he also highlighted the "critical difficulties" that the investigation could cause negotiations over the sale of Typhoon aircraft to the Saudis.

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