Chirac rejects call for more Nato troops in Iraq

1.00pm

President Jacques Chirac of France cast a cloud over the G8 summit yesterday by rejecting a call by George Bush and Tony Blair for Nato to send troops to Iraq to back the interim government after the handover of sovereignty on 30 June.

President Bush and Mr Blair made it clear they were hoping that Nato nations, which have been reluctant to become embroiled in Iraq, would have a change of heart following the unanimous passing of the UN Security Council resolution giving authority to the Allied force.

But M. Chirac told reporters at the summit of leading industrial nations at Sea Island: "I do not think it's the mission of Nato to intervene in Iraq."

A senior British source responded: "[M. Chirac] seems to think we are talking about hundreds of thousands of troops. We are not talking about that. We are talking about training the Iraqis. Any request for Nato support would come from the Iraqi government."

The summit did agree to support a fresh attempt to revive the Middle East "road-map" peace initiative by asking the quartet - Russia, the US, the EU and the UN - to go back into the peace talks by the end of this month.

It will enable Mr Blair to return home at the weekend with evidence for his critics that he is able to use leverage on President Bush to tackle the underlying Middle East problem, which is fuelling the continuing violence in Iraq.

Mr Bush and Mr Blair said they wanted to build on the momentum from the 15-0 vote on Iraq in the UN Security Council. Mr Bush said he could see a wider role for Nato in post-occupation Iraq after a 45-minute meeting with Mr Blair.

He said: "We believe Nato ought to be involved. We will work with our Nato friends to at least continue the role that now exists, and hopefully expand it somewhat."

Fifteen Nato countries currently have forces in Iraq. The Spanish government pulled out its troops after the Madrid bombings.

Britain recently announced it would send an extra 300 troops to Iraq at the request of British commanders on the ground, but ministers are committed to making a strategic deployment of between 3,000 and 7,000 extra British troops to fill in the gaps left by the Spanish.

Mr Blair is hoping that the Security Council resolution will minimise the political fall-out at home when the decision is made, but a senior Tory source said: "The Security Council resolution and having more Nato troops in Iraq won't make a blind bit of difference to Osama bin Laden. If anything, it will make it more likely al Qaeda will step up the suicide bombings to show it cannot work."

However, Chirac and fellow G8 member Gerhard Schroeder of Germany reported a generally collegial atmosphere at the summit.

"There has been a remarkable change in the American foreign policy," said the German chancellor. US officials described Bush's meeting with Schroeder on Tuesday as the warmest between the two leaders in more than a year.

"American colleagues understood they have to play ball and they did play ball," said Chirac.

Bush introduced Iraq's caretaker President Ghazi al-Yawar to summit delegates on Wednesday and to the leaders of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen who were invited to the talks to take part in discussions on the Middle East initiative.

"I really never thought I'd be sitting next to an Iraqi president of a free country a year-and-a-half ago. And here you are," Bush told al-Yawar, resplendent in a brown robe and white headdress.

Al-Yawar heads a transition government that takes power from a US-led coalition at the end of the month and is to help guide the turbulent country toward elections in January.

"We are moving in steady steps toward (democracy)," he said. "We're determined to have a free, democratic, federal Iraq, a country that is a source of stability to the Middle East, which is very important for the rest of the world," he said.

Chirac told a summit lunch that democracy could not be imposed from outside and ending Middle East conflicts had to be the priority.

"We must stand ready to help. But we must also take care not to provoke," he said. "For that would be to risk feeding extremism and falling into the fatal trap of the clash of 'civilisations:' precisely what we wish to avoid."

Summit sources said the so-called Quartet that is mediating in Middle East peace efforts would return to the region by the end of the month.

The sources said the G8 had agreed the Quartet -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- would provide practical help including assisting with municipal elections in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The G8 countries -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia -- threw their weight on Wednesday behind efforts to reach a framework agreement in world trade talks by the end of July.

- - INDEPENDENT and REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq