France said today a speech by US President George W. Bush urging the international community to settle differences over Iraq and back an American-drafted UN resolution offered prospects of an agreement.
Mr Bush overnight called for 15,000 more foreign troops to take part in peacekeeping in Iraq, where US soldiers come under daily attack by forces opposed to the occupation of the country.
The call signalled a shift from Mr Bush's previous insistence that the occupying powers - the United States and Britain - take the lead role in Iraq. It appears to be an admission of the failure to secure a swift and peaceful transition there.
"This is unquestionably good news for us . . . as well as for Iraq and the Iraqi people," France's European Affairs Minister, Ms Noelle Lenoir, said on RTL radio. "What George Bush said overnight is an opening towards a fitting resolution in the UN Security Council."
Ms Lenoir said France was anxious to ensure the Iraq crisis did not undermine the United Nations' role as the cement that held the international community together.
French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said last week the US draft motion on Iraq did not give enough responsibility to Iraqis or the United Nations. It proposed a unified command for international forces subject ultimately to overall US control.
Mr Bush suggested no revision of the draft in his 18-minute speech, but Ms Lenoir's comments clearly signal Paris sees a change in tone and the possibility of compromise.
Relations between France, a veto-wielding UN Security Council member, and Washington nose-dived after Mr Chirac said France would veto any UN resolution approving military action to force Iraq to end banned weapons programmes.
"I recognise that not all of our friends agreed with our decision to enforce the Security Council resolutions and remove Saddam Hussein from power. Yet we cannot let past differences interfere with present duties," Mr Bush said in a speech last night.