July 29 (Bloomberg) -- John Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations may face new roadblocks in the Senate after the State Department said Bolton failed to tell lawmakers he was interviewed about faulty intelligence reports on Iraq.

State Department spokesman Noel Clay said yesterday that Bolton forgot about a 2003 interview by the department's inspector general, who was examining how the U.S. concluded Iraq tried to buy nuclear material from Niger, when he filled out a questionnaire for his Senate confirmation hearings.

The admission prompted Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, to call on President George W. Bush to withdraw the nomination.

``How can you still consider John Bolton to be the best person to send to be our representative to the world at the United Nations?'' Boxer said in a statement.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said today that Bush still supports Bolton.

``We do need a permanent representative at the UN,'' he said. ``This is a critical time,'' because of the U.S. plan to push for changes at the world body. ``Clearly, John Bolton is someone who's enjoyed majority support'' in the Senate, McClellan said.

Andy Fisher, spokesman for Senator Richard Lugar, the Indiana Republican who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, declined to comment.

Delayed Vote

The Republican-controlled panel sent the nomination to the Senate without a recommendation on May 12 after Republican Senator George Voinovich of Ohio came out against Bolton, joining Democrats on the panel in saying he lacked a diplomat's temperament. In the full Senate, Democratic Senators Joseph Biden of Delaware and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut have led an effort to delay a vote on Bolton.

At issue in the latest chapter in the nomination fight is Bolton's answer on a committee questionnaire that asked if he had been ``interviewed or asked to supply any information in connection with any administrative (including an inspector general), congressional or grand jury investigation within the past 5 years, except routine congressional testimony.'' Bolton checked a box marked ``No.''

``When Mr. Bolton completed the form during the confirmation process he did not recall being interviewed by the State Department Inspector General, therefore his form as submitted was inaccurate,'' Clay said. ``He will correct it.''

Dodd said the failure to disclose the interview ``is one more reason why the administration should look for another individual'' to fill the UN post.

``The cloud over Mr. Bolton's nomination grows larger and darker with each passing day,'' Dodd said in a statement.

Request for Review

The State Department's admission came three hours after Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking for clarification about whether Bolton was interviewed during a joint investigation by the inspectors general of the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Biden asked Rice to review the matter and ``determine whether incomplete or inaccurate information was provided by Mr. Bolton.''

Bolton, a 56-year-old former undersecretary for arms control and international security, was questioned in connection with a joint State Department-CIA probe related to alleged Iraqi attempts to procure uranium from Niger. He was not a target of the investigation or accused of any wrongdoing.

The probe was requested by Senators Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the panel's ranking Democrat, according to a Senate aide familiar with the matter.

Uranium, Documents

Roberts and Rockefeller wrote to the inspectors asking for an investigation into the documents and other material that Bush relied on to say in his 2003 state of the union address that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium from Africa, according to the Senate aide. At least some of those documents turned out to be forged, and the administration later said the information shouldn't have been included in the speech.

The report, entitled, ``Joint Review of Alleged Attempts by Iraq to Procure Uranium from Niger'' was provided to the Intelligence Committee in September 2003. It said Bolton was interviewed by Anne Sigmund, then the acting inspector general of the State Department, the aide said.

Leak Investigation

The Iraq-Niger connection also is at the heart of a separate federal investigation by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald into who disclosed the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, who is married to former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, a critic of the Bush administration's policy in Iraq.

``Mr. Bolton was not interviewed as part of the Fitzgerald investigation,'' Clay said.

With the nomination stalled in the Senate, Bush administration officials have raised the possibility the president may use his constitutional authority to temporarily appoint him to the UN post after Congress goes on recess at the end of the week.

If appointed by the president, Bolton would remain as UN ambassador until January 2007. The nomination then would become subject to Senate confirmation. There has never been a recess appointment of a U.S. ambassador to the UN, according to the Senate historian.

To contact the reporter on this story: Janine Zacharia in Washington at jzacharia@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 29, 2005 10:56 EDT