The French President Jacques Chirac tonight warned he will not accept any UN resolution allowing the United States and Britain to administer post-war Iraq.
Speaking at the conclusion of an EU summit in Brussels this evening, Mr Chirac said France would reject any moves that "would legitimise the military intervention and would give the belligerents the powers to administer Iraq".
He said that would "justify the war after the event," and went on to describe the US-led invasion of Iraq as a tragic moment that would be likely to have unforeseen consequences.
His comments followed those of the British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair who urged the EU to support a new UN resolution setting up a post-Saddam Hussein "civil authority in Iraq".
Mr Chirac's comments comes as European governments and companies become increasingly worried that they will be left out if a US-led occupation force restores calm to Iraq and multimillion-dollar reconstruction contracts start to fly.
Even before the first shot was fired in the war on Iraq, Washington had launched a tender for 850 million worth of reconstruction contracts, under the auspices of its own international development agency USAID.
US President George W. Bush's administration has requested bids from US giants Louis Berger Group and Kellogg Brown and Root, according to the Wall Street Journal.
US Vice President Dick Cheney was chief executive of Kellogg Brown and Root's parent company, Halliburton, for five years until 2000, and continued to receive payments after that date under the terms of his leaving package.
Two other US companies also confirmed they had submitted bids to the USAID tender for the building, repair or management of Iraqi hospitals, roads, schools, airports and shipping.
The US has also set up a special office under Pentagon control to coordinate humanitarian work in post-war Iraq, as well as the reconstruction of the country's political and civic institutions.
Estimates vary as to what the reconstruction will cost - but all are in the tens of billions of dollars.
AFP