PARIS, Feb 27: Welcoming Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to the Elysee Palace for a series of talks over settlement of the Middle East conflict, President Jacques Chirac let it be known that he backed the peace plan proposed last week by Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

“His proposals are strong and courageous,” said Mr Chirac, who also revealed that he had telephoned Prince Abdullah over the weekend to personally inform him of France’s decision to support his peace plan.

The acceptance by President Chirac of the Saudi plan is significant for until now, France, notably in the person of Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, has had its own plan. Mr Vedrine, however, in attempting to sell the French plan to his partners in the European Union as well as Israel and France’s traditional Arab partners, has met with little success. Indeed, President Yasser Arafat, who had been expected to give his full support to the Vedrine plan, said as far as he was concerned, the plan was “interesting.”

Mr Chirac told Mr Peres that with the plan proposed by Prince Abdullah, “We now have the premises for a just and durable settlement of the conflict,” but the plan, Chirac pointed out: “Calls for all parties to sit down together and come up with an accord.”

Mr Peres said on his part the Saudi plan “provided a positive climate” for peace, as well as an “extraordinary chance,” but he did caution that it was “not (his) role to search for peace,” rather, he stressed, “(it was) for a majority that will support peace.” “It’s an extremely complicated situation, and there is still much to be done,” he told Mr Chirac.

ANTI-SEMITISM: Mr Chirac also startled his listeners by telling Mr Peres that he was “extremely shocked” by repeated accusations made by Prime Minister Sharon according to which France had become a hotbed of anti-semitism. In reacting to Mr Chirac’s statement, Foreign Minister Peres said as far as he was concerned, “France is not an anti-semitic country.”