French press for return of UN to Iraq

FRENCH leaders used their traditional Bastille Day interviews yesterday to press for the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq, saying such a move could help settle doubts over Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass murder.

After watching French and European troops march side-by-side in a show of unity down the Champs-Elysees, President Jacques Chirac criticised the United States and Britain for refusing to allow UN inspectors to complete their job in Iraq before going to war.

“They carried out their work in an extremely positive and capable way,” Chirac said. “They must be given the time to finish.”

France wanted the United Nations to disarm Saddam and led global opposition to the US-led invasion. Chirac argued the war was not justified, a stance that won him acclaim in France, but riled US President George W. Bush and many other Americans.

Chirac, however, refused to comment yesterday on allegations the US and British governments manipulated intelligence about Saddam’s banned weapons to bolster their case for war four months ago.

Defence Minister Michele Alliot- Marie, who presided over the parade alongside the president, said: “The best way to lift the doubts (about Iraqi weapons) is for UN inspectors to go there and see.”

She told France-Inter radio that French intelligence agencies had no information about whether Iraq possessed banned arms before the war, and if so, what happened to them afterward. She noted Saddam did not use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons even when it became obvious his regime would not survive the US onslaught on Baghdad.

Meanwhile, in a gesture of European unity, a German general headed the military parade on the Champs-Elysees for the first time since Nazi occupying troops marched in triumph down the same avenue half a century ago in World War II. Gen. Holger Kammerhoff lead 120 soldiers from the five-nation Eurocorps toward the Place de la Concorde, underscoring the close ties between France and Germany and the goal of closer European unity. The Eurocorps, based in the French city of Strasbourg, was created a decade ago and includes 70,000 soldiers who would likely form the core of any future European army.