PARIS, July 10: French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin says that as far as France is concerned, any troops it decides to send to Iraq “won’t be sent without a specific mandate from the UN Security Council” and that “we prefer that a political transition in Iraq be placed under the responsibility of the United Nations”

He was replying to a statement made in Washington on Wednesday by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who told the US Senate Armed Services committee that it was the “objective” of the United States to send to Iraq a “large number of international forces from a number of countries, among them France and Germany.”

Asked by an interviewer from the Le Figaro newspaper as to what would be the conditions under which France could send its forces to Baghdad, Mr de Villepin let it be known, in a full page interview, that “as far as we’re concerned, it would be suitable that a political transition in Iraq be placed under the responsibility of the United Nations.”

“Today, “ he added, “that’s the precondition for having an effective transition. Which is why any participation (by our troops in an international force) could only eventually be considered within the framework of a UN peace-keeping force operating under a specific mandate from the Security Council and thereby benefitting from the support of the entire international community.”

Asked whether France’s position would necessitate in his estimation another Security Council resolution other than resolution 1483, Mr de Villepin posed the question “whether resolution 1483, which marked a positive step towards the search of a solution, is still applicable to the situation”.

“We must examine it,” he noted, “because in fact this resolution does organize the period of occupation, although it does not foresee the sending of a United Nations peace force. It would also be incoherent for France to take part in a coalition force whereas it had never supported this war and although defended an alternative solution founded on the pacific disarmament of Iraq.”