May 2, 2003	Friday	Safar 29, 1424

BRUSSELS: European countries that opposed the US-led war on Iraq are scrambling to ingratiate themselves with the victorious United States, but France faces some punishment for its leadership of the anti-war axis.

In the last 10 days, France, Germany and Turkey have all acted to try to repair strained relations with Washington, welcoming the fall of Saddam Hussein and pledging to cooperate on a range of issues from post-war Iraq to Afghanistan and NATO.

The French have shifted most spectacularly, reversing their position to propose an immediate suspension of UN sanctions on Iraq and dropping opposition to NATO taking over management of an international peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

Diplomats said there were even hints that Paris might accept a military role for the Atlantic Alliance in the post-war stabilization of Iraq, not immediately but perhaps by summer.

“The change of tone has been amazing,” a NATO diplomat said.

Yet the Bush administration has been far warmer towards Russia, which continues to insist UN weapons inspectors must return to Iraq before sanctions can be lifted, than it has towards France.

In the run-up to the Iraq war, President Jacques Chirac said Paris would use its UN veto to block any resolution allowing the use of force and sent his foreign minister around the globe to lobby Security Council waverers to oppose the United States.

DAMAGE DONE: Russia too threatened a veto but US officials believe French campaigning did most to obstruct support for military action in Iraq.

They also say Washington has “other fish to fry” with Moscow, including enlisting Russian help to pressure Syria to cooperate both on Iraq and in curtailing its support for anti-Israeli Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups.

Turkey’s refusal to allow US troops to invade Iraq from the north was arguably more harmful to Washington’s war plans than the French-German-Russian diplomatic blockade.

Once the fighting was over, Paris also promised to be “pragmatic” in seeking solutions to rebuild Iraq. But the diplomatic damage was done.

Powell, often regarded as the most pro-European member of the Bush administration, said on Tuesday that France would face unspecified consequences.

“It’s over and we have to take a look at the relationship. We have to look at all aspects of our relationship with France in light of this,” he told television interviewer Charlie Rose.

The French industry federation says its firms are already suffering unquantified economic damage in the United States.

US Vice President Dick Cheney said recently he believed France’s main goal was to rein in the United States, regardless of the threat posed by Iraq.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder won re-election last September in part by campaigning against US military action in Iraq, infuriating the White House. Some analysts credited Schroeder with having pulled Chirac deeper into the anti-war camp than France had initially intended.

Germany, France and Belgium, backed by a majority of public opinion across Europe, jointly blocked NATO military assistance to Turkey before the war but eventually relented.

Schroeder has since made up with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington’s chief comrade in arms, and has come close to apologising for anti-American comments by some German ministers.

Diplomats say Washington is now keen to start rebuilding bridges with Berlin, perhaps partly to isolate France.

COUNTERWEIGHT: British officials say Chirac had learned the hard way that he cannot unite the European Union, or even a hard core of its founder members, as a counterweight to US world power.

The EU split roughly down the middle, with five of its members and 10 east European candidate states signing public statements of support for the hardline US stance on Iraq.

Although Chirac publicly upbraided the newcomers for their bad behaviour, France now seems determined to avoid deepening the rift.

Diplomats say Paris is keen to avoid any bold declaration of European independence from the United States at a four-nation mini-summit on European defence called by Belgium next Tuesday.

France and Germany, which will attend the meeting along with Luxembourg, initially advocated the idea of a pioneer group of EU countries moving ahead with closer military integration. But diplomats say the timing has given both countries cold feet.—Reuters