The details of the conversation have been kept unknown for nearly a decade, as the two leaders are believed to have discussed whether they should get UN resolution authorizing them to go to war, which in the end they never got.

A panel chaired by tribunal judge Professor John Angel overruled objections form the FCO which had demanded to keep the files related to the conversation secret, saying that allowing any part of the discussion to go public would cause “serious damage” to UK-US relations, The Guardian reported.

Judge John Angel, president of the information tribunal, said Foreign Office witnesses had downplayed the significance of a decision to go to war, a view the tribunal found “difficult to accept”.

“Also in our view, particularly from the evidence in this case, the circumstances surrounding a decision by a UK government to go to war with another country is always likely to be of very significant public interest, even more so with the consequences of this war,” he added according to The Guardian.

Britain and the U.S  had tried to try to win over a majority of members of the Security Council in order to go to war. Then on 10 March, France’s President Jacques Chirac said to French TV that even if there was a majority, France would  veto the resolution.

It was after hearing President Chirac’s remarks that Tony Blair finally gave up the quest for a second UN resolution, a decision he is assumed to have conveyed to President Bush in that 12 March phone call, according to Independent.

The tribunal ordered that an edited version of the note should be released within 30 days.