France gave the UN Security Council a three-point plan yesterday, which calls for lifting the oil embargo and a looser system to monitor Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
The proposal focuses on preventing Baghdad from rearming rather than accounting for its present or past arsenal, the main thrust of UN arms inspections since the Gulf War.
"The embargo has no more raison d'etre," the French paper said. "At the same time, one should ensure that revenues generated by oil exports are not used for military purposes."
France wants the eight-year-old UN oil embargo lifted but proposes retaining military sanctions against Iraq in the framework of a new monitoring system.
France discussed its ideas with the other Security Council permanent representatives - Britain, China, Russia and the United States - and submitted them to the full 15-member council at a closed-door session yesterday.
The Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, said the proposals were "the first concrete step" towards rebuilding Security Council strategy after US and British air strikes last month.
The US State Department said they contained "positive" elements, but Washington insists on disarmament before lifting the Iraqi embargo.
The proposal is vague on how to ensure Iraq does not import materials related to weapons of mass destruction as well as what kind of disarmament commission France envisages to replace or augment UNSCOM, the UN Special Commission that has been carrying out this function since April 1991.
Since the United States and Britain bombed Iraqi targets in December, Baghdad has refused to allow any arms inspections.
France wants a long-term monitoring programme to make sure Iraq does not use its remaining weapons stocks or acquire new ones under a "renewed control commission so that its independence will be ensured and its professionalism strengthened". This means there would be no intrusive inspections of past weapons programmes.
The French proposal is unclear about what would happen to the Kurdish-dominated northern provinces, where the UN rather than Iraq runs a relief programme.
Lifting the embargo would allow Russian and French companies to develop Iraqi oilfields and help Baghdad upgrade its dilapidated oil industry.
Mr Rolf Ekeus, the former UNSCOM chairman and now Sweden's ambassador to Washington, said UNSCOM could not be discarded. "There is no B team."
In The Hague, the British Foreign Minister, Mr Robin Cook, ruled out any dialogue with President Saddam Hussein until Iraq respects Security Council resolutions.
Mr Cook dismissed accusations that Iraqis were short of food and medicine as a result of the sanctions, putting the blame instead at the president's door. "If the people of Iraq go hungry and the hospitals run short of medicine, it is because of Saddam Hussein." In the latest skirmish over Iraqi skies, the Pentagon said US jets destroyed missile launch sites in the northern no-fly zone yesterday after being fired on.
It said there was no damage to the US jets involved, but in Baghdad a military spokesman said Iraqi anti-aircraft fire had hit an "enemy" warplane.
Meanwhile, Iraq rejected any attempts to revive arms inspections by UNSCOM. Vice-President Mr Taha Yassin Ramadan also criticised the French initiative.