Washington, Feb. 1 (Reuters): US President George W. Bush is leaning toward endorsing an independent inquiry into intelligence used to justify an invasion of Iraq, despite his earlier resistance to such a probe, sources said yesterday.

Bush has faced pressure from both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill to accept an investigation after former chief US weapons hunter David Kay said he did not believe Iraq had any stockpiles of illicit weapons. Evidence of such weapons were the main reason Bush cited for launching the war.

Bush has not made a final decision on the intelligence inquiry but he is expected to soon, according to two sources familiar with discussions the White House has been having with congressional officials.

“It’s clear there’s mounting pressure to go ahead with this,” said an adviser to a senior Democrat on Capitol Hill. “There’s a growing recognition on both sides of the aisle that this needs to be done. The credibility abroad of US intelligence is in question.”

Bush had earlier rejected an independent probe amid White House fears of a political witch hunt by Democrats hoping to unseat him in this year’s presidential election, but began in recent days to reconsider the position.

“I want the American people to know that I, too, want to know the facts,” Bush told reporters on Friday.

In going to war to topple Saddam Hussein’s government in March 2003, Bush cited intelligence that said Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons and was developing a nuclear weapon.

But Kay told a congressional panel on Wednesday “we were almost all wrong” in assuming that Iraq had illicit weapons.

Some Republican insiders have said that although a probe on intelligence poses plenty of political risks for Bush in the run-up to the November election, continuing to resist calls for an inquiry might make the president appear as if he had something to hide.

White House spokesperson Jimmy Orr declined to comment on the administration’s thinking with regard to the probe except to refer reporters back to Bush’s comment’s from Friday.

Vice-President Dick Cheney has been involved in some of the discussions with members of Congress but sources said the negotiations were being led out of the White House.

Bush, who travelled to Philadelphia to attend an election-year strategy session with Republican members of Congress, was asked there about Iraq intelligence by Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

The President replied that he wanted to know the facts about the accuracy of US intelligence before the war, according to a US official.