Chirac: No veto on Iraq resolution
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Bush to lobby his most vocal war critics at the U.N. on Tuesday.
France, Germany and Britain meet in Berlin to seek common ground over Iraq.
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NEW YORK -- French President Jacques Chirac has said France will not veto a new United Nations resolution tabled by the United States on the future of Iraq.
U.S. President George W. Bush's administration proposed the resolution to attract more foreign troops and international funds to Iraq but many other Security Council nations had called for a greater role for the U.N..
Chirac has called for the transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people "in a matter of months," but the U.S. is reluctant to set a deadline.
In an interview with The New York Times published Monday, Chirac said he did not intend to veto the U.S. resolution, unless it became "provocative."
"We don't have the intention to oppose. If we oppose it, that would mean voting 'no,' that is to say, to use the veto. I am not in that mind-set at all," he said.
But he said France would vote for the resolution only if it included a deadline for the transfer of sovereignty and a timetable for the switch of power, as well as a "key role" for the United Nations.
Otherwise, he said, France would abstain.
He called for the transfer of power in Iraq from military occupation to the Iraqi people in a two-stage plan.
The president said the plan would involve a symbolic transfer of power from the Americans to the Iraqi Governing Council, then a gradual process of transferring real power over a period of six to nine months.
Chirac said if Iraq's council could be given power, France would be willing to train Iraqi police officers and soldiers.
On Sunday, Bush said he was not sure the United States will have to yield a significantly larger role to the U.N. to make way for a new resolution on Iraq.
He continued to insist on an orderly transfer of authority to the Iraqis rather than the quick action demanded by France, but said he did think it would be helpful to get U.N. help in writing a constitution for Iraq.
Europe divided
The leaders of Britain, Germany, and France held a one-day summit in Berlin Saturday designed to settle their differences over Iraq.
Afterwards, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "Whatever the differences there have been about the conflict, we all want to see a stable Iraq." (Full story)
But Schroeder and Chirac highlighted the remaining differences -- with the French leader even correcting Blair when he suggested there might be some movement on agreeing to the transfer of power from the U.S. occupying force to Iraqi officials.
Professor Richard Whitman, of the University of Westminster in London, told CNN the talks were a "major disappointment."
"(We) hoped for a real push towards some firm agreement at least among European states.
"It is very difficult to see where we are going to see some common ground."
The German leader emphasized the need for a transition of power from the U.S. to an Iraqi government, saying differences on "how to do it and how to get there" still exist within the international community.
"They need to be resolved," he added, pointing to talks at the United Nations.
He said a "more prominent role" should be given to the U.N. and the transition of power to an Iraqi authority "as quickly as possible."
Chirac is due to meet Bush in New York on Tuesday, when the U.S. president is due to address the U.N. General Assembly.
Another opponent of the war, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, said during a four-hour marathon meeting with U.S. reporters over the weekend that he was right to have oppose the U.S.-led invasion -- referring to the current situation in the country.
"More and more Islamic extremists are infiltrating into Iraq today which hardly existed there in the past."
"Theoretically, we don't rule out Russia's more active participation in the restoration of Iraq," he added.
"Including the participation of our military in normalization of the situation...To us, it doesn't matter who will lead that operation...This could as well be the American military."
But first, the U.N. Security Council must pass a resolution that includes a specific mandate for international peacekeepers, defining their mission, goals and how timescale, he said.
Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
