International Criminal Court prosecutor announced on Sunday that US President George W Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair could face war crimes charges at the Hague, after it emerged that up to one million Iraqis have been killed since the illegal invasion.

Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said that he could envision a situation in which Mr Bush and Mr Blair found themselves in the dock.

"Of course that could be a possibility. Whatever country joins the court can know that whoever commits a crime in their country could be prosecuted by me," Mr Moreno-Ocampo affirmed.

Days before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein approached lawyers in Britain about signing up to the International Criminal Court, but his effort was overtaken by events.

Had he succeeded, the actions of the occupation forces in Iraq would fall within the court's jurisdiction.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said that it was still possible for an investigation to be launched, if Iraq signed up.

Iraq's ambassador to the UN Hamid al-Bayati said that Baghdad is actively considering joining.

Respect [Britain political party, ed.] councillor for Birmingham Salma Yaqoob said: "It would be a step forward for the Iraqi people if Baghdad signed up to the ICC, as seeing Bush and Blair face justice for their flagrant violations of international law would help to relieve the sense of hopelessness in Iraq."

An Australian scientist has published a new estimate of casualties in Iraq, using four sets of independent data, including information from UNICEF and the UN population division, as well as medical literature.

Dr Gideon Polya's figure is far higher than the previous largest estimate of 655,000.

"The most comprehensive and authoritative literature and UN demographic data yields an estimate of one million post-invasion excess deaths in Iraq," Dr Polya said.

A Stop The War Coalition spokesperson said: "Four years after the start of the conflict, we can see that everything the anti-war movement predicted has taken place, but it has been far worse than we feared."

And Labour leadership contender John McDonnell said: "These figures confirm that Blair has taken us into the bloodiest conflict we have been engaged in since the second world war," adding:

"[Blair] legacy is the barbarism that he unleashed on Iraq."

The father of a British soldier who was killed in Iraq branded Mr Blair a liar who had betrayed the armed forces.

Eddie Hancock spoke of the pain of losing his "fearless" and "patriotic" son Jamie, who was shot dead while on sentry duty in Basra in November.

"I have been utterly sickened by this government's treatment of our armed forces," said Mr Hancock.

"Our soldiers should be brought home now," he demanded, adding: "They are dying for nothing."

Just three weeks after Mr Blair announced that troop levels in Iraq would be reduced by 1,600, the Ministry of Defence is sending a battery of six 105mm cannon to Basra in a bid to outgun resistance fighters, who have been bombarding occupation bases with mortars and rockets that can be fired from several miles away.

It will be the first time that British artillery has been deployed in Iraq since the overthrow of the Ba'athist regime in 2003.

The financial cost of the Iraq campaign to the British taxpayer is likely to exceed �5 billion by the end of this month.

Despite government claims in the run-up to the invasion that it was aiming for a diplomatic solution, �847 million was spent on the Iraq operation in 2002-3.

In the year leading up to the aggression, the military spent �34 million on manpower, �218 million on equipment and �170 million on supplies.

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