France says the international community should put aside prewar divisions to focus on Iraq's reconstruction.
Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters after talks with his Jordanian counterpart, Mr Marwan Muasher, that it was vital the world community had a major role in rebuilding Iraq.
"Everybody understands that in order to win peace in the region, to win peace in Iraq, to win peace in the Israeli-Palestinian process, we need to be committed to work together," Mr Villepin said before departing to Iran on the final leg of a Middle East tour.
"It is true in the Security Council. Of course, it is true also in the region".
But France's insistence that the United Nations and not Washington should take the leading role in Iraq's reconstruction is likely to meet a frosty reception.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said France, which opposed the US-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein, would suffer the consequences of its anti-US position.Mr Villepin said in Turkey on Tuesday that France was ready to back suspension of sanctions on Iraq.
But officials in Paris refused to elaborate on French conditions for suspending the sanctions, leaving unclear how France can find a consensus with the United States, which wants sanctions scrapped as quickly as possible.
Mr Villepin said the United States and Britain, as occupying forces, should ensure Iraq's immediate stability to prevent its disintegration on ethnic lines.
He also dismissed suggestions France had been marginalised because of its opposition to the war. "All the meetings I had in the region showed that the position of France may have never been as high," Mr Villepin said.