McCain picked for Iraq intelligence probe

The panel would report back next year, after the November election. No such event was included on the president's official schedule for the day, although last-minute additions are typical of this administration.

Claims that Iraq had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction were the main reason cited by Bush for the war, in which more than 500 US troops have died.

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McCain is a maverick who opposed Bush for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 and is known for speaking his mind and taking on the administration. He broke party ranks to insist that Bush needed to have an independent commission look into prewar intelligence.

He would lend a streak of independence to a commission that Democrats doubted would be non-partisan since its nine members are being picked by Bush rather than by Congress.

Republican sources said McCain was offered the post by the White House on Thursday and accepted.

Names that have been circulating as possible commission members included Robert Gates, a former CIA director under the president's father; Nebraska Republican Rep. Doug Bereuter; and former Georgia Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn, among others.

The White House was also drafting an executive order to set out the scope of the investigation. The administration was giving the panel a broad mandate to look beyond Iraq and at other intelligence matters like the nuclear programs of Libya, Iran and North Korea.