LONDON: Prime Minister Gordon Brown will be called to appear before the official inquiry into the war in Iraq after the next general election, which is due by June, the panel announced Wednesday.

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Brown was finance minister when former prime minister Tony Blair took Britain into the US-led war to depose Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in March 2003, a conflict that remains highly contentious here.

Blair himself is due to give evidence sometime in January or early February, the inquiry confirmed, alongside his former defence and foreign ministers, his government's then most senior lawyer and his former press chief.

But there will then be a break in hearings and Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband will not be called until after the election.

"The committee has decided to wait until after the election to hear from those ministers who are currently serving in the roles about which the committee wishes to question them," the inquiry said in a statement.

"The committee believes that only after the general election can these ministers give their evidence fully without the hearings being used as a platform for political advantage."

The long-awaited inquiry led by former senior civil servant John Chilcot was set up to learn the lessons from the Iraq war. It is due to report by the end of 2010.

Chilcot's long-awaited inquiry into the lessons that could be learned from the six-year Iraq war is due to report by the end of 2010.