Today's Date:

First, we have to face reality. What is this reality? Iraq is a concern for the whole world community. It is, of course, a great concern for this very region. It is a concern for Europe. All the problems of the Middle East have consequences on our daily lives. We have five million Muslims in France. So the problems that you face here do really concern us. They are not foreign issues. They have consequences in our societies. So we are part of this, and of course, the Iraq reconstruction is going to be a very tough challenge for the world community. When you are facing a very tough challenge, you need everybody. You don't say, "Oh, we're going to take these and we're not going to take those". You need everybody. You need everybody to build a new Iraq upon a new legitimacy. So we need the United Nations. The United Nations is the only organ that has and can give international legitimacy. For political reconstruction, we need the UN, for economic reconstruction, you need everybody because the needs of Iraqis are so great, so important, that you need everybody to share the cost of the reconstruction. And of course, we all know how complex, how difficult the situation is currently in Iraq. On humanitarian grounds, on security grounds, on social grounds, we are going to need a lot of efforts to maintain the unity, to maintain the integrity, the territorial integrity of Iraq, to maintain and to give sovereignty to the people of Iraq. That's why I think we should be open, realistic, pragmatic. But we must built upon principles. Those principles that we have in common, that we share in international society and these principles are going to be very important to stick to if we want to avoid things going wrong in Iraq.

Because, you've said it, things are only just beginning. You can imagine you can win a war alone. You can't build the peace alone. It's not possible. Look at the difficulties on the ground to gain security in Iraq, look the difficulty to ensure humanitarian assistance. You can imagine what it is going to be like to reconstruct Iraq.

And also I believe we should act responsibly as regards all the problems of this region. You can't make a distinction between different types of suffering in a region like this. Of course, Iraq is a big challenge, but we shouldn't forget the situation between Israel and the Palestinian Territories. This has been going on for decades and we are not ready to accept it for much longer. Because it's absolutely necessary that the whole international community exerts pressure to resolve this so painful, so difficult conflict. It is needed because, you see, when you don't answer this feeling of frustration, this feeling of injustice, then it's difficult to make peace. If you want to make peace in Iraq, you have to take all the chances with you. You have to work with everybody. You won't build the peace without the countries of the region. All the Arab peoples, all the Arab countries need to be part of this reconstruction. Iraq has been in a war with almost all her neighbours. We need to build on peace, on stability and justice. You see, this cannot be done by one country alone, even the most powerful country in the world. You can't do peace alone.

First, we have to discuss and that's why I come at this very moment, such a difficult moment in the region, because we need to maintain this dialogue. This dialogue is absolutely needed in order to prepare the future. If we want to reconstruct Iraq, if we want to build on principles, we need to discuss what these principles are, what are the requirements to go ahead. Of course, we need to be in a position where the Iraqis are going to take their own destiny in their hands, be sovereign, to form an Iraqi government. It's not going to be easy, you need to have all the Iraqi people together. This is going to need the support of all the region, the support of all the governments of the region. This is very difficult of course and that's why we think it's important to maintain this dialogue, to come to this region, to discuss with all of the leaders of this region how they see the situation, how they believe we can help. And France really wants to contribute to this process and we believe that Europe has a great part to play. And answering a little more your question, I would say that there is one important element we have to keep in mind at this very moment, that this Europe, which has been divided on how to answer the question of Iraq, is not divided on the answer we have to give to reconstruction. We share the same views as the British, we share the same views as the Spanish. I was in Spain yesterday. I had a meeting with my colleague, Jack Straw, and I believe we share the same view: the UN should really have a key role in reconstructing and everybody should support.

The debts of Iraq are very important, it's a very big concern. It should be dealt with in a generous and a very useful way. We have the Paris Club which is the key organ which is going to deal with this matter and look into details of all the aspects of these Iraqi debts. And we believe that the Paris Club which we are heading is going to be convened soon and will examine the proposal for these Iraqi debts./.