Lawyers' panel indicts Bush, Blair

By Julian Ryall in Tokyo

Monday 07 March 2005, 19:03 Makka Time, 16:03 GMT

US President George Bush and

British Prime Minister Tony Blair

deserve life sentences,

 with the possibility of parole

 after 25 years,

 for the war crimes and

 genocide in Iraq,

 according to a lawyers' panel.

Speaking on Monday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan,

 Kohki Abe, a professor of law at Kanagawa University,

said they should face the "maximum penalty available".

That would not include the death penalty,

 however, as the members of the tribunal

 opposed capital punishment, he added.