FRANCE: France called yesterday for a change of policy direction in Iraq, with the United States handing political power to an Iraqi provisional government and security to a United Nations-mandated multilateral force.
Foreign Minister Mr Dominique de Villepin, speaking a day after the US indicated it could consider a UN-sponsored force, said France wanted "a real international force".
Deputy Secretary of State Mr Richard Armitage said in an interview that Washington might accept a UN force if the commander was an American.
But Mr de Villepin hinted that that might not be enough, and France thought that Iraq first needed a provisional government able to help define the country's security needs.
"A real change of approach is needed [in Iraq\]," he told the annual meeting of French ambassadors in Paris. "We must end the ambiguity, transfer responsibilities and allow the Iraqis to play the role they deserve as soon as possible."
The international community should help reinforce security "on the basis of requests by Iraqi authorities", he said, referring to the provisional government which he said should be created out of the current US-appointed interim government.
"The eventual \ arrangements cannot just be the enlargement or adjustment of the current occupation forces," he added. "We have to install a real international force under a mandate of the United Nations Security Council."
While Washington has begun to signal some flexibility on the military side, it has officially refused to consider giving up control of the civilian administration as Mr de Villepin urged.
He last week called on Washington to switch from "a logic of occupation to a logic of [Iraqi] sovereignty."
In a blunt interview with the daily Le Figaro, a leading Pentagon advisor and staunch critic of Paris's Iraq policy echoed the French call for a power transfer in Baghdad. "Today, the answer is to hand over power to the Iraqis as soon as possible," Mr Richard Perle said.
In his speech, Mr de Villepin stressed the leading role France wanted the UN to play - an approach that infuriated Washington in the weeks before the outbreak of war as Paris threatened to veto any UN resolution authorising an attack.
He said the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council should be turned into "a real provisional government whose legitimacy would be reinforced by the United Nations". The UN Security Council should pass a resolution setting elections for a constituent assembly by the end of this year, he added.
Mr de Villepin told the ambassadors that Europe and the US shared common values and interests that went beyond the tensions they experienced earlier this year when France, Germany and Russia opposed Washington's war plans.
"It is in the interest of the United States to share the risks with Europe, and therefore the responsibilities," he said, adding Europe had to provide the means to put its different view of world affairs into practice.
Mr de Villepin renewed a call first made by President Jacques Chirac for a transatlantic charter that would define how to pursue common policies and smooth over differences. He proposed a reform of the UN, with an enlarged Security Council and a "disarmament corps" with arms inspectors ready "to respond to new demands arising from current proliferation risks from Iraq to North Korea".