The UK government's recent announcement that it will conduct an inquiry into Britain's involvement in Iraq has led to calls here for Australia to review its own participation in the controversial war.

Britain's foreign secretary David Miliband said in late March that the government would undertake a "comprehensive" inquiry into Britain's decision to join the 2003 United States-led invasion of the Middle Eastern nation.

The review will be carried out after July, by which time the majority of British troops will have been withdrawn from Iraq.

"We're very pleased that the British government has taken this decision and we would support the same thing happening in Australia," says Sue Wareham, president of Australia's Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW), a professional not-for-profit organisation which works for the promotion of peace and disarmament.

Wareham told IPS that part of the legacy of the Iraq war is "that it has undermined international law and the role it plays in settling disputes between countries."

She says that clarification is required regarding the extent to which the leaders of the U.K. - along with those of the U.S. and Australia - "were acting outside the law" at the time of the invasion.

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