a form of pressure, a view the Senate committee rejected.

But Pat Roberts, a Republican from Kansas and chairman of the panel, said there was no evidence that the agency altered any findings under political pressure. ''In the end,'' he said at a news conference, ''what the president and the Congress used to send the country to war was information that was provided by the intelligence community, and that information was flawed.''

The issue is not whether the White House or the Pentagon ordered the agency to produce intelligence assessments that conformed with White House policy on Iraq. The report concluded, ''The committee was not presented with any evidence that intelligence analysts changed their judgments as result of political pressure, altered or produced intelligence products to conform with administration policy,or that anyone even attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to do so.''

The lingering question, not directly addressed by the committee, is whether the White House and Pentagon generated a climate that induced the agency and its director, George J. Tenet, to emphasize the Iraqi threat even though the intelligence data was ambiguous.

That question, in part, revolves around the relationship between the White House and Mr. Tenet, who leaves the agency on Sunday after seven years as director. Some intelligence officials said Mr. Tenet, a holdover from Bill Clinton's presidency, seemed to be eager to establish himself in Mr. Bush's inner circle.

Mr. Tenet has said that he never shaded intelligence to please a president.

As the White House turned its attention toward Iraq in 2002, intelligence officials, including