UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23: France’s President Jacques Chirac said he and US President George Bush had failed to overcome their differences on the future of Iraq during a meeting here on Tuesday.

The two met for 45 minutes at the US mission to the United Nations after spelling out their opposing views to the UN General Assembly on how to handle Iraq’s reconstruction and transition to democracy.

Mr Chirac told reporters that France and the United States shared the common goal of securing peace and rebuilding Iraq but added: “We also have differences.”

“We believe — and this is what I told President Bush — that today, the situation in Iraq is such that it is very difficult for Iraqis in general to accept a situation that, one way or another, is an occupation,” he said.

“We have to change tack,” Chirac said, urging a quicker handover of power to Iraqis. “It will take a month, six months, nine months. I can’t tell you exactly how long, but we have to take a decision today.”

He said Iraqis were frustrated by the situation and that the international community should demonstrate a “clear will through a strong political gesture — in other words, the transfer of sovereignty.”

In his speech to the assembly, Bush said that outside nations should not try to accelerate the handover of power, which he said had to be reached in “orderly and democratic” fashion.

“This process must unfold according to the needs of Iraqis, neither hurried nor delayed by the wishes of other parties,” Bush said.

A senior US official who spearheaded opposition to the war, had told Bush he “wouldn’t stand in the way” of the resolution.

“The president was very clear in stating again that the premature transfer of sovereignty, which has been the French proposal, is just not in the cards,” the official said. “It would be the wrong thing for the Iraqis.”—AFP