15 January 2004	Thursday	22 Ziqa'ad 1424

MANAMA, Jan 14: French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin has used a five-nation tour of the oil-rich Gulf to lobby for a "new regional security architecture" following the Iraq war.

"What France is proposing is to ponder a conference, which could be organized by the United Nations and bring together all countries of the region and the main (members of) the international community," he told a news conference here on the last stop of his tour Wednesday.

"After a process which will lead to the restoration of full sovereignty in Iraq (at the end of June), this country must be reintegrated in the regional community in the best possible conditions," he said.

At that point, "it will be important for all countries in the region to head in the same direction," de Villepin said of the Gulf Arab states, which are close US allies.

All "dimensions of security" must be taken into account, said de Villepin, citing terrorism, arms proliferation and respect of borders. The proposal is "not aimed at excluding anyone," said the French minister, whose country was a leading opponent of the US-led war on Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein last April.

"We want to work hand in hand with our American friends ... We are not here to compete with anyone," he insisted. Speaking at the inauguration of a French school in Manama earlier Wednesday, de Villepin said his three-day tour - which took in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar in addition to Bahrain - had led him to the conclusion that French policies over the past few months had been "very well understood" in the region.

Even in Kuwait, which was occupied for seven months by Saddam's forces in 1990-1991 and which had serious differences with France on Iraq, de Villepin tried to promote the French vision without appearing to dictate.

In the meantime, he removed a hiccup in French-Kuwaiti relations by settling a longstanding dispute over extra charges requested by a French firm that built a bridge in the emirate in the 1980s.

The French minister's hosts listened politely but had no immediate comment on his suggestions. "The mere fact of accepting to hold joint news conferences points to their interest in our ideas," a French diplomat said, requesting anonymity.

"Our partnership comes out stronger from this tour," de Villepin said. "I was struck at every stop by the willingness to work together and make a collective effort" to agree security arrangements, he said.

In addition to post-Saddam regional security, de Villepin discussed with his hosts the situation in the Middle East, testing the ground for a joint Arab-European effort to break the stalemate in the peace process. "We cannot accept the current impasse (in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process); that is the feeling of France," he said in Abu Dhabi.-AFP