FRANCE: France said yesterday that President Bush's speech urging the international community to settle its differences over Iraq and back an American-drafted United Nations resolution offered prospects of an agreement.
The president's call for more foreign troops to take part in peace-keeping operations signalled a shift from his previous insistence that the occupying powers - the United States and Britain - take the lead role in Iraq.
It was also a tacit admission of the failure to secure a swift and peaceful transition there.
"This is unquestionably good news for us ... as well as for Iraq and the Iraqi people," European Affairs Minister Ms Noelle Lenoir said on radio. "What George Bush said overnight is an opening towards a fitting resolution in the UN Security Council."
French diplomatic sources in Paris said France would present amendments on Monday to the US-drafted resolution, proposing a bigger role for the UN in Iraq and a faster transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people.
The development came after French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said last week the US draft did not give enough responsibility to Iraqis or the UN. The draft proposed a unified command for international forces subject ultimately to overall US control.
France, a veto-wielding UN Security Council member, led Western opposition to the Iraq war, provoking anger in Washington in the process. Ms Lenoir said France was anxious to ensure the Iraq crisis did not undermine the UN's role as the cement that held the international community together.
The French diplomatic sources said discussions at the UN would show whether the US was ready to give a greater role to the UN in Iraq, and whether there was a genuine desire for a consensus.