PARIS, Dec 18: Just back from a week’s long visit to the Gulf states, French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Renaud Muselier says he’s convinced that none of the states he’s visited, above all Kuwait, wants for the United States to launch a unilateral strike against Iraq.

“My visit made me realize,” says Muselier, “how the world still needs France, especially in the context of a possible forthcoming strike against Iraq.

“The countries I visited are extremely sensitive to France’s diplomatic action against a unilateral US strike, especially with regard to the vote of UN Security Council resolution 1441. We indeed are perceived as having made possible the return of the UN inspectors to Iraq,” he remarked.