TONY Blair has been called on by the SNP to give “full disclosure” to MPs following claims he was part of an effort to save the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi during the 2011 military intervention.

A biography of David Cameron has claimed the former Labour Prime Minister approached Downing Street to say he had been contacted by "a key individual close to Gaddafi" and that the Libyan leader wanted to "cut a deal".

According to the book, the PM decided not to follow up the approach because he wanted to avoid "doing anything which might be seen to give the Libyan leader succour". Gaddafi was later killed by rebel fighters on the streets of Sirte.

Tory MP Crispin Blunt, who chairs the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, which is conducting an inquiry into the Libya campaign, indicated it was now likely to ask Mr Blair explain any involvement.

He said the ex-premier would also be able to provide information about the policies the UK Government pursued previously, when he oversaw a controversial rapprochement with Gaddafi in 2004.

"Any inquiry would have to have a look at that, and then the suggestion that he made an intervention during the course of 2011 certainly strengthens the case for having him come and give evidence," Mr Blunt added.

But the Conservative backbencher stressed that the committee would approach Mr Blair's actions with an open mind. "We should avoid rushing to judgment. We do not arrive at the start of this inquiry with a conclusion in mind."

The SNP’s Stephen Gethins, who also sits on the committee, said: “Over ten years on since the ‘deal in the desert’, these new revelations are just the latest which raise serious questions about Tony Blair’s links to the former Gaddafi regime in Libya. People will be appalled that a former Prime Minister saw fit to lobby on behalf of a dictator.”

The Fife MP suggested that the year after Mr Blair took Britain into an illegal war with Iraq he concluded the so-called deal in the desert despite later conceding that Libya posed a greater weapons of mass destruction threat. It now, he argued, appeared that Mr Blair's misjudgements on Libya did not end there.

Mr Gethins added: “I urge Tony Blair to make full disclosure on his links to the Gaddafi regime both in office and since he left Downing Street.

“The Foreign Affairs Committee is already undertaking an inquiry on Libya, providing a welcome opportunity for MPs to question the former Prime Minister on the issue; he should make himself available at the earliest opportunity.”

Conservative backbencher Daniel Kawczynski, a committee member and the author of a Gaddafi book, accused Mr Blair of indulging a "sordid" and "irresponsible" idea to do a deal to save the dictator.

"It is very irresponsible for Mr Blair to even have suggested it," he said.

Nadhim Zahawi, another Tory on the committee, added: "With these revelations, we should be pushing for Blair to come and explain as part of the inquiry."

Other claims in the biography by Anthony Seldon, entitled “Cameron at 10”, include an allegation that John Sawers, former MI6 head, saying the intervention in Libya was for "humanitarian reasons" rather than in Britain's "national interest";

It also states that Lord Richards of Herstmonceux, the former Chief of the Defence Staff, accusing the PM of staging a "half-baked" campaign to oust Gaddafi and being more interested in a "Notting Hill liberal agenda" than"statecraft";

The book also says President Barack Obama refusing to take Mr Cameron's calls for three days in the run-up to a crucial vote by MPs to authorise military action in Syria and

There is also a claim the Prime Minister became so frustrated with London Mayor Boris Johnson coveting his job that he told him to "f****** shut up" or Ed Miliband would end up in Downing Street.

No 10 declined to comment.