PARIS, March 18: In a solemn address on Tuesday, President Jacques Chirac warned Mr Bush telling that if the US continued with its ways, “it’s the stability of the world that you are endangering.”

Mr Chirac stressed that “as far as I’m concerned, Iraq is certainly not an immediate danger to anybody, and doesn’t justify any unilateral declaration of war.”

In stating that there was “no immediate necessity” for Mr Bush’s pro-war speech of Monday night, President Chirac said he was surprised that the US president would issue his ultimatum at the very moment when the United Nations inspectors had begun achieving important results with their work on the ground in Iraq.

Moreover, he said, such actions as those advocated by the US president, and “whatever the future evolution” of Mr Bush’s ideas, “they place in danger the idea we have had until now of international relations, of the future of this region (the Middle East), indeed of the stability of the world.”

“To go to war, and do so without the legitimacy (of the United Nations), to give the upper hand to force over the rule of law, in doing so,” Mr Chirac said, directly addressing Mr Bush, “you place on your shoulders a heavy responsibility.”