- MUNICH, Germany (Reuters)
- Germany and France are working on a new plan to try to avert war in Iraq
that would compel Baghdad to admit thousands of U.N. troops to enforce
disarmament and tighter sanctions, a magazine said on Saturday.
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- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he knew nothing
officially of the proposal.
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- Germany's leading news magazine Der Spiegel said the
idea had originated in the office of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Berlin
and Paris had been working on the details of the initiative in secret talks
since the beginning of the year.
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- A German government spokesman confirmed Berlin and Paris
were collaborating to find a peaceful alternative to war with Iraq, but
would not provide any details of the efforts.
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- German government sources said the initiative built on
proposals made by French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin this week
to intensify weapons inspections in Iraq and offer French reconnaissance
planes to support them.
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- After talks with German Defense Minister Peter Struck
in Munich, Rumsfeld said he had not been officially informed of the initiative.
U.S. officials said it was "extraordinary" Rumsfeld had not been
told of the plan.
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- "I heard about it from the press. No official word.
I have no knowledge of it," Rumsfeld told journalists after the meeting
with Struck on the sidelines of a major security conference.
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- A senior U.S. official said Rumsfeld had questioned Struck
on reports of the proposal to beef up inspections in Iraq and the German
side had confirmed they were talking to the French but were not ready to
discuss the plan with the Americans.
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- "We're now making the point to every Frenchman and
German we find that that is not the way to have a winning hand with the
United States," the official said.
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- Struck would only say the plan represented a "concrete
proposal," but added he did not want to preempt an address by Schroeder
on Iraq to the German parliament on Thursday.
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- OLD EUROPE STRIKES BACK
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- Schroeder, who has angered Washington with his opposition
to any war with Iraq, would discuss the idea at the weekend with Russian
President Vladimir Putin, Der Spiegel said. France would probably take
over driving the initiative forward and use it as a basis for a new Security
Council resolution proposal.
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- French and German reticence over war has infuriated Washington,
prompting Rumsfeld to label them "old Europe," saying they were
isolated in a continent whose center of gravity was shifting east to embrace
U.S. allies in central Europe.
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- The French Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the
proposal but French diplomatic sources confirmed Paris was discussing bolstering
inspections with Security Council members.
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- French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told the
Munich conference Paris believed inspections had proved more effective
than the Gulf War of 1991 in disarming Iraq, but did not rule out military
action as a last resort to make Baghdad cooperate.
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- "That's why France has proposed reinforcing the
means given to inspectors, to reinforce the number of inspectors,"
she said.
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- In an advance copy ahead of publication on Sunday, Der
Spiegel said Berlin and Paris wanted to publish their proposal in the next
few days before weapons inspectors in Iraq report back to the U.N. Security
Council on Friday.
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- Initial reactions from Security Council veto-holders
Russia and China and European Union president Greece were positive, the
magazine said, while Pope John Paul had offered German Foreign Minister
Joschka Fischer support for the initiative.
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- U.N. PROTECTORATE
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- Der Spiegel said the initiative, which it said had been
dubbed "Project Mirage," included the following proposals:
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- -- the some 150,000 U.S. troops already deployed to the
Gulf should stay in place to force Baghdad to cooperate and be ready to
invade if it breaches the new proposed U.N. resolution;
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- -- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would be forced to
admit thousands of armed U.N. troops to oversee intensified weapons inspections
in the whole country as well as full disarmament, creating a de facto "U.N.
protectorate";
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- -- the number of weapons inspectors should be tripled
from the current 100 operating in Iraq;
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- -- the no-fly zone over northern and southern Iraq should
be extended to cover the whole country and French, German and U.S. reconnaissance
planes should be allowed to patrol the skies;
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- -- a permanent U.N. coordinator of arms inspections in
Iraq could be appointed;
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- -- sanctions should be made more focused to clamp down
on oil smuggling by Iraq's neighbors and tighten export controls;
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- -- a special U.N. court should be established to oversee
infringements of the new resolution and human rights abuses;
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- The magazine said the initiative could help Schroeder
out of the corner he seemed to have backed himself into over Iraq, risking
international isolation if he sticks to his anti-war stance but political
suicide at home if he changes course.
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- He could sell the proposal to war-weary Germans as a
last-ditch bid to avert conflict, but swing behind any military action
if Baghdad failed to go along with the plan, it said, although without
the involvement of German troops.
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- President Bush has said the United Nations must soon
decide whether to back his demand that Iraq abandon its alleged chemical,
biological and nuclear programs or be disarmed by force. Iraq denies having
any such weapons.
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- (With additional reporting by Paul Carrel in Paris)
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