January 23, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 19, 1423

VERSAILLES (France), Jan 22: France and Germany, celebrating 40 years as the key axis of power in the European Union, declared on Wednesday they were of one mind on Iraq and determined to avoid a conflict there.

The two states also blocked a decision in NATO on whether to prepare supporting measures in any U.S.-led war against Iraq during a debate at NATO’s Brussels headquarters among alliance ambassadors, diplomats said.

President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, speaking at ceremonies to mark the 40th anniversary of their bilateral friendship treaty, said the Security Council was the only body with the legitimacy to approve an attack on Iraq.

“War is not inevitable,” Chirac said to loud applause from French and German deputies at an unprecedented joint parliamentary session in the Versailles Palace.

“France and Germany, who are successively chairing the Security Council, are coordinating their positions closely to give peace every possible chance.”

Schroeder, after warning on Tuesday evening that Germany would not support any resolution sanctioning an attack, said France and Germany, who have struggled to find common policies in recent years, would try to speak with one voice.

“We agree completely to harmonise our positions as closely as possible to find a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis,” he said, after a joint cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace.

But Chirac declined to say whether France, one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, would vote the same way as Germany, now one of 10 rotating members.

The anniversary of the 1963 Elysee Treaty establishing a unique special relationship between the former enemies came amid growing tension between the United States and several of its European allies over Washington’s policy on Iraq.

U.S. President George W. Bush brushed aside increasingly frank opposition to a war from his allies on Tuesday and said time was running out for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The United States last week formally asked the 19-nation NATO alliance to consider six measures to provide indirect military assistance in case of a war with Iraq, mainly to protect NATO ally Turkey against possible Iraqi attacks.

Diplomats at the NATO meeting said the allies were not opposed to the U.S. requests in principle, but were anxious not to appear to be endorsing military action before diplomatic avenues to avert a conflict had been exhausted.

“In principle all would be in favour of what’s proposed, especially with regard to looking after Turkey. My guess is the picture will change after the 27th,” one said, referring to next week’s key report by weapons inspectors to the United Nations.

Both France and Germany have urged more time for U.N. arms inspectors to search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The inspectors are due to report on Monday about their work and Iraq’s compliance with U.N. resolutions on disarming.

A Chirac ally, former prime minister Alain Juppe, underlined the more outspoken line recently taken by France — which is keen to keep war-and-peace decisions in the Security Council because it maintains a crucial role there as a permanent member.

“Given what’s being said in reports and current declarations by U.N. inspectors, there’s no reason to start military action,” Juppe, now head of Chirac’s UMP party, said on Europe 1 radio. He added that this view enjoyed wide support in Europe.

The day’s events, carefully choreographed to accommodate the hundreds of deputies crammed into the palace’s ornately gilded Congress Hall, put heavy emphasis on the role France and Germany play as pioneers of integration in an expanding European Union.

Chirac said a European Union expanding to 25 or more members needed a “centre of gravity” to keep it in balance.

—Reuters