France repeated its opposition today to a US-sponsored UN Security Council resolution threatening Iraq with military force.
"We do not want to give carte blanche to military action, because we want to fully assume our responsibilities," Foreign Minister Mr Dominique de Villepin told Le Monde.
"That is why we cannot accept a resolution authorising as of now the recourse to force without [the issue] coming back to the UN Security Council," he added in the interview.
Washington wants to change the ground rules for UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, demanding access to any site and protecting inspectors with a security force, according to those familiar with the UN draft.
The US draft resolution would set a timetable giving Baghdad one week to accept demands to disarm and 30 days to declare its weapons of mass destruction - or face the consequences.
On Friday, France rejected the US proposal. One of five veto-holding members of the Security Council, France has proposed two resolutions, with the second one paving the way for action if Baghdad hindered the inspectors allowed in under a first resolution.
- Spaniards oppose war on Iraq, poll shows
Nearly 90 per cent of Spaniards oppose a US military strike against Iraq, according to a poll in Spain's El Paisnewspaper today.
The poll suggested public opinion was at odds with the Madrid government's support for US President George W. Bush's campaign to halt Iraq's alleged development of weapons of mass destruction.
Eighty-seven per cent of Spaniards polled said they did not support war on Iraq; 71 per cent said any attack should be approved by the United Nations, according to the poll.