The foreign ministers of France, German and Russia are to meet in Paris today to discuss the UN's involvement in Iraq's post-war settlement.
Mr Dominique de Villepin was to host a lunch with Mr Joschka Fischer and Mr Igor Ivanov before flying to Rome for afternoon talks with his Italian counterpart, Mr Franco Frattini, and an audience with Pope John Paul II.
The meetings come a day after US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell met NATO and European foreign ministers in Brussels in what was seen as the first step in a process of reconciliation between the US and Europe after the bitter divisions over the Iraqi war.
European countries are pressing for a central role for the UN in Iraq's post-war administration, but the United States has said it will reserve for itself and Britain a free hand in determining how the country is run until it decides otherwise.
However Mr Powell told France's Le Figaronewspaper that the UN "has to be associated" with Iraq's post-war administration, and that it should play a part in running humanitarian aid programmes and installing an eventual civilian authority.
In recent days France, Germany and Russia have for the first time made clear they want US-led coalition forces to win the conflict, moving away from what appeared to be a neutrality based on their view that the war was illegal.
The three foreign ministers were expected to discuss the timing and phrasing of a new UN Security Council resolution to set post-war Iraq within an international framework. All three countries are concerned not to approve any wording that appears to legitimise the US-British invasion.
AFP