Today's Date:

France, like all the democracies, welcomes the collapse of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship and is hoping for a swift and effective end to the fighting.

It is now necessary to create the conditions which will give the Iraqi people back their dignity in their new-found freedom.

The urgent task is immediately to get every form of humanitarian aid into Iraq. As soon as possible, after the necessary phase of making the country safe and secure, Iraq must regain, with the legitimacy given by the United Nations, her full sovereignty in a stabilized region./.