TONY BLAIR faced angry cries of “too late” yesterday when he expressed regret for the huge loss of life caused by the Iraq War – a year after being criticised for failing to do so.

Families of dead soldiers shouted from the public gallery after the former Prime Minister and Sedgefield MP told the Chilcot Inquiry he “deeply and profoundly” regretted the bloodshed, insisting his earlier remarks had been misinterpreted.

Rose Gentle, the mother of 19-year-old Fusilier Gordon Gentle, shouted “Your lies killed my son”, while Reg Keys, who lost his son, Lance Corporal Tom Keys, aged 20, yelled: “You’re a disgrace to your office and our country.”

Mr Blair left the inquiry room without glancing towards the relatives – some of whom were openly crying – after giving evidence for almost four-and-a-half hours.

Earlier, a revealing secret memo was released, dated March 17, 2002, in which Mr Blair argued for Britain to be “gung-ho on Saddam”, as he made the case for military action.

In the document, Mr Blair acknowledged that “WMD problems don’t seem obviously worse than three years ago”

– six months before his infamous dossier insisted Saddam’s chemical and biological weapons would be “ready within 45 minutes”.

In his evidence, Mr Blair admitted he privately promised President George Bush he would not back out of war as early as June 2002 – nine months before the invasion.

However, he denied the private notes – which have not been released – amounted to a “blank cheque” and denied saying: “You know, George, whatever you decide to do, I’m with you,” as alleged in a recent book.

But Mr Blair said he kept from the president his own Attorney General’s advice, in January 2003, that war would be illegal without a second UN resolution, because to reveal it would be a “political catastrophe”.

And he made a second passionate appeal for the West to be ready to use force against Iran, telling the inquiry panel: “This is a looming and coming challenge.

“They carry on with the terrorism, they carry on with the destabilisation, they carry on with the nuclear weapons programme.

“At some point we have got to get our head out of the sand.”

At one point, Mr Blair quoted the words of an unnamed intelligence officer, suggesting Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were “contained in the brains of experts”. None was found following Saddam’s removal from power.

However, his second appearance lacked – until the closing moments – the drama of his initial evidence, in January last year, and only a small group of anti-war demonstrators were there to accuse him.

On that occasion, the former Prime Minister, asked if he had regrets for the lives lost in Iraq, replied: “Responsibility, but not a regret for removing Saddam Hussein.”

But yesterday, Mr Blair said: “That was taken as my meaning that I had no regrets about the loss of life and that was never my meaning, or my intention.

“I wanted to make it clear that, of course, I regret deeply and profoundly the loss of life, whether from our own armed forces, those of other nations, the civilians who helped people in Iraq or the Iraqis themselves.”