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BAGHDAD - As French President Nicolas Sarkozy was returning home from a two-week holiday in the United States, his Foreign Minister was arriving in Baghdad.
If Sarkozy's American vacation, with its boat ride with US President George W. Bush, was an indication of a new direction for French-American relations, Bernard Kouchner's trip to Iraq signalled a new French approach to US foreign policy.
Kouchner is the first top French official to visit Iraq since the beginning of the US-led war in 2003, which France vigorously opposed, causing a bitter division between the countries.
Kouchner, invited to Baghdad by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, told a news conference he was on a listening visit and had not come to present any diplomatic initiative.
"I want to listen to the people ... We have to understand this country, we have to understand what's going on between the Shiites and the Sunnis, not only in Iraq," he said.
Kouchner told the joint news conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari that there was no military solution in Iraq and there had to be a political one.
"Now we have to face the reality, including the American view ... but this is an Iraqi problem and it must be solved by the Iraqis," Kouchner said.
Kouchner said he would meet representatives of all of Iraq's different communities and members of the Government over the next two days.
Kouchner's visit comes amid talks between Iraq's political leaders to try to revive national reconciliation efforts and repair the fractured unity Government.
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is under growing pressure from Washington, which is frustrated by negligible political progress while its troops step up operations to quell sectarian violence. Former French President Jacques Chirac and his then foreign minister Dominique de Villepin were at the forefront of international opposition to the US-led war.
Sarkozy, elected in May, has sought to improve relations, saying he wanted France to be a friend of the United States. He paid an informal visit to the Bush family estate during his US holiday where they chatted over burgers and hotdogs.
A White House spokesman welcomed Kouchner's visit.
"This is one more example ... of a growing international desire to help Iraq become a stable and secure country," spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
Kouchner's appointment after Sarkozy's election in May was seen as significant for relations with the United States and with Iraq where France has no troops but has kept an embassy.
FRESH PAIR OF EYES
* Bernard Kouchner is a co-founder of the Nobel Peace prize-winning aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres.
* His appointment as Foreign Minister by Nicolas Sarkozy was the first time a French President gave someone from another political camp such a senior post.
* Kouchner, 67, strongly criticised Sarkozy during the campaign, saying he had "no shame fishing in the waters of the extreme right".
* He was United Nations governor for Kosovo from 1999 to 2001 and one of the rare French politicians who spoke out in favour of military intervention in Iraq in 2003.
* He said he was against war but also against Saddam Hussein's regime.
- Reuters
