Tony Blair will not be put on trial for war crimes but British soldiers could be, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court have said.

Ahead of the long-awaited publication of the Chilcot report on Wednesday, lawyers at the court have ruled out prosecuting the former prime minister for war crimes because it says the decision to go to war is outside its remit.

Instead the ICC says lawyers will comb through the 2.6 million word document for evidence of war crimes committed by British troops during the war.

The decision has outraged the families of the 179 British soldiers who were killed during the eight year conflict. They blame Mr Blair for dragging the UK into the war under false pretences.

In a statement to the Sunday Telegraph, the ICC said it had begun a “preliminary examination” of claims of abuse by British soldiers from human rights lawyers on behalf of Iraqi victims.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC in The Hague said: “We will take note of the Chilcot report when released in the context of its ongoing preliminary examination work concerning Iraq/UK.

“A preliminary examination is not an investigation but a process aimed at determining whether reasonable basis exist to open an investigation.

“As already indicated by the Office in 2006, the 'decision by the UK to go to war in Iraq falls outside the Court’s jurisdiction’.”

The US-led invasion began in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein (PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images)

The statement said the court was considering introducing a “crime of aggression” to deal with illegal invasions but stressed they could not apply it retroactively.

Roger Bacon, whose son Matt was killed by a roadside bomb in 2005, condemned the court's stance.

He told the Telegraph: “It is outrageous. It is double standards.

“These soldiers have gone out to do their best for us and here they are being hounded and yet the guy who took them there is not being looked at.

The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Show all 20 1 /20 The most iconic images from the war in Iraq The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman HM1 Richard Barnett, assigned to the 1st Marine Division, holds an Iraqi child in central Iraq, March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An explosion rocks Baghdad during air strikes March 21, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman watches U.N. weapons inspectors leave Saddam airport in Baghdad March 18, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her sister as she waits for her mother (R) to bring over food bought in Basra March 29, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marine Corp Assaultman Kirk Dalrymple watches as a statue of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein falls in central Baghdad's Firdaus Square, April 9, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq US Marines kick in a door while securing a building next to the main hospital in central Baghdad April 15, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A soldier of U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division (Task Force Ironhorse) searches through dense vegetation around the Diala river where Iraqi militants are hiding outside Baquba early November 13, 2003 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi detainee gestures toward U.S. soldiers through bars of his cell at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad May 17, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Mays, a young Iraqi Shi'ite girl, cries after a mortar shell which landed outside the family's home in a Najaf residential area injured her uncle August 18, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marines carry an injured colleague to a helicopter near the city of Falluja, November 10, 2004 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi man suspected of having explosives in his car is held after being arrested by the U.S army near Baquba, Iraq, October 15, 2005 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A wounded Iraqi woman is helped after several bomb attacks in central Baghdad, July 27, 2006 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A man runs down a street warning people to flee shortly after a twin car bomb attack at Shorja market in Baghdad, February 12, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her hands up while U.S. and Iraqi soldiers search her family house in Baquba early June 30, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman tries to explain that she has nothing to do with illegal fuel as soldiers from the 2nd battalion, 32nd Field Artillery brigade patrol search for illegal fuel sellers in Baghdad August 6, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. President George W. Bush (L) walks in front of Humvees with Defense Secretary Robert Gates (C) and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following remarks to the press after nightfall at Al-Asad airbase in Anbar Province September 3, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. soldiers blindfold an Iraqi man after arresting him during a night patrol at the Zafraniya neighborhood, southeast of Baghdad September 4, 2007 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi baby lies in a cradle while a woman argues with U.S. soldiers of 1/8 Bravo Company searching for weapons, explosives and information about militants in the area during a foot patrol in a neighbourhood of Mosul June 26, 2008 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Policemen cry during a funeral of their colleague a day after a bomb attack in Baghdad's Jihad district November 3, 2010 Reuters The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Staff Sgt. Keith Fidler kisses his wife Cynthia, as their son Kolin looks on, during a homecoming ceremony in New York, April 8, 2011 for the New York Army National Guard's 442nd Military Police Company's return from Iraq Reuters

“That is completely wrong and disgusting.”

Last year, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mr Blair could be made to stand trial over the war – saying he believed the invasion was illegal.

He said: “We went into a war that was catastrophic, that was illegal, that cost us a lot of money, that lost a lot of lives.

“The consequences are still played out with migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, refugees all over the region.”

Tony Blair refused to be drawn on the outcome of the Chilcot report when interviewed by Sky News (Sky News)

Speaking on Sky News' Murnaghan today, Mr Blair said: "I have said many times over these past years I will wait for the report then I will make my views know and I will express myself fully and properly.

"I'm not getting into the politics or the detail of it before we actually get it".

He has repeatedly denied lying in the run-up to the invasion in May 2003. In October 2015, he apologised for "mistakes" in the planning of the operation and said the intelligence they received was wrong but told CNN he found "it hard to apologise for removing Saddam".

He compared the invasion of Iraq with inaction in Syria saying the West had stood back while hundreds of thousands of people had been killed by President Bashar al-Assad and Isis.

An estimated 460,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the conflict after a US-led invasion toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003.