EU candidate states have expressed support for a joint declaration on Iraq hammered out by EU leaders to bridge differences over the crisis.
A joint statement said that the leaders of the 13 EU hopefuls had "aligned themselves with the content of the conclusions adopted" at an emergency EU summit on Iraq yesterday.
The statement was released after the candidates were briefed on the outcome of the EU summit, which said the bloc wants a peaceful resolution to the crisis but does not rule out the use of force as a "last resort."
French President Jacques Chirac last night rebuked EU candidate states, accusing them of "childish" and "dangerous" behaviour after they signed public letters siding with the United States over Iraq.
He was stung last month by a pro-US letter published by eight European countries including EU candidate countries Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic that left France and fellow war opponent Germany out in the cold.
Days later, the leaders of 10 eastern European countries known as the "Vilnius Ten" issued their own letter backing Washington on the threat of military action against Baghdad.
Latvian Foreign Minister Sandra Kalniete told said today that the joint EU statement was broadly in line with what the group wanted.
"I don't find anything that would be substantially different from the position taken by the Vilnius Ten countries," she told
AFP