PARIS, Feb 24: In a major statement of French foreign policy, the country’s foreign minister Dominique de Villepin has let it be known that France is dead set against the introduction by the United States of a new resolution before the UN Security Council. A resolution is expected to be introduced in the next few days, perhaps later this week.

In a front-page interview in Monday’s edition of the French national daily Le Figaro, Mr de Villepin makes it clear that with regard to Iraq, as with any other part of the world, “the temptation to make use of force is not the solution.”

“As long as the UN inspectors assure us that they are making progress,” he asserted, “we will remain opposed to a new resolution,” a stand which he said was shared by President Chirac.

“The UN inspectors have been producing results and are capable (if given the chance) of completely disarming Iraq.” Only, he added, if it became apparent that “the inspections were no longer advancing,” could the introduction of a second resolution be envisioned.

He also noted, as did recently President Chirac, that “given the importance of the threats with which we are faced, we need a world that has several poles of stability,” giving short shrift in effect to any pretension by President Bush to become the world’s predominant superpower.

Asked whether in taking such a definitive stand against the US he is not taking a chance with damaging France’s historic ties with America, all that Mr de Villepin would say was that “what’s at stake is not our cross-Atlantic relationship (with the US), rather the way in which we’re going to deal with the Iraqi crisis.”

With regard to the Middle East and President Bush’s plans to “remodel” that part of the world, Mr de Villepin noted that “obviously we want for democracy to progress in the Middle East. But is the use of force really the best way of bringing that about?”

“On the contrary, it will only reinforce hate and intolerance. And given the multiple fractures that exist today in the Middle East, the employment of force cannot in any way, in itself, lead to a virtuous resolution of the problem. Indeed, it risks having the opposite effect. The use of force must therefore remain the ultimate recourse.”