PARIS, July 13: The French government has applauded the formation of a transitional governmental council in Iraq, “in close collaboration with the special representative of the secretary general of the United Nations, in conformity with article 9 of resolution 1483 of the UN Security Council.

According to the declaration proclaimed on Sunday in Paris by the spokesman for the French foreign affairs ministry, France also characterizes creation of the council with United Nations support as a “positive first step in a process which should rapidly lead to the reestablishment of the full sovereignty of Iraq and the full mastering by the Iraqis of their destiny.”

Meanwhile, a leading French MP Guy Tessier, a member of the National Assembly’s defence commission as well as of the Democratie liberale political party that is part of President Jacques Chirac’s ruling coalition, says that France “is ready” to send to Iraq “between 3000 and 5000 troops,” but only “under a United Nations mandate.”

RSF: Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) said it is “profoundly shocked” by the death in Tehran of Zahra Kazemi, 54, a journalist of Iranian and Canadian nationality who had been detained on June 23 by authorities for having taken photographs and who was in a coma apparently following a cerebral haemorrhage.