Don't abandon peace efforts - German president

The search for a peaceful resolution of the Iraq crisis must not be abandoned, German President Johannes Rau says.

In an interview released today, he argues "any solution that people don't have to die for is better than a war."

"As long as the guns are silent, peace has a chance - and this chance should be used," Rau, a member of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Germany has joined with France and Russia to insist UN weapons inspectors get more time to disarm Iraq peacefully, and opposes a second resolution at the UN Security Council that would authorise a war.