Eminent Australians, led by former prime minister Malcolm Fraser, are calling for an independent inquiry into the decisions which led to Australia joining the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

It follows similar independent inquiries initiated in the UK and Netherlands.

On March 20, 2003, a US-led coalition which included Australia launched an invasion of Iraq with the aim of finding what the US believed were weapons of mass destruction held by former leader Saddam Hussein.

Mr Fraser has told ABC News Breakfast an inquiry in Australia is overdue.

"Going to war is a really serious matter," he said.

"I do not believe that any one person in Australia should have the power to take this country to war, especially when due process has not been followed.

"We know the war was begun on a lie, we know the evidence was fabricated.

"We know that, certainly in Britain and the United States, they knew that the claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction were in many respects false, and yet they still went to war on that basis."

Sorry, this video has expired Former defence secretary Paul Barratt joins Iraq inquiry call

Former defence secretary Paul Barratt has told Australia Network's Newsline it is apparent now that in the lead-up to the war there was a great deal of manipulation of intelligence within the US system.

"There was clearly questions about its legality," he said.

"There was some very dubious intelligence being bandied about.

"Governments were not sceptical about that intelligence and they in turn made very dubious use of it to sell the war."

The call for an inquiry is supported by a group of leading academics, retired senior diplomats and experts.

Mr Barratt says the inquiry could reveal how the Australian Government chose to reconcile conflicting intelligence information.

"It would be good for the Australian public to know what efforts the Australian government made and Australian intelligence agencies made to review the intelligence and resolve those conflicts," he said.

Those calling for the inquiry say its purpose would be to understand how the decisions were made in the lead-up to the war.

Mr Barratt says it is important to consider how those lessons could be applied in future.

"I think the more important point is to have a look at how we make the most important decisions governments make, which is decisions to participate in military operations to put people in harm's way and to invade another country," he said.

"I think it is the quality of the decision making process that is the central issue here."

'No need'

The Coalition's former foreign minister, Alexander Downer, says there is no need for an inquiry into the Iraq war.

Mr Downer says both houses of parliament debated the issue at the time, and a resolution was passed to proceed.

"I'm not quite sure why we want to do more inquiries," he told triple j's Hack program.

"I would've thought this country had more urgent things to deal with than focusing on having yet another inquiry into something that's already been subject to full parliamentary debate, scrutiny and inquiries."