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France on Saturday proposed that foreign ministers from the UN Security Council members decide on a calendar for Iraq to disarm immediately after UN weapons inspectors deliver a report to the 15-nation body on Tuesday.
The proposal was made in a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry in Paris which also said now was not the moment to end weapons inspections and that nothing justified recourse to force at this stage in the campaign to disarm Iraq.
An official at the ministry said the same statement was also being issued in Russia and Germany, two other countries that have joined France in resisting pressure from Washington for clearance to allow military action against Iraq.
France and Russia are two of the five permanent members of the Security Council with veto power on the council. Germany is a non-permanent member.
The statement was issued on the eve of a meeting in the Azores islands in the middle of the Atlantic between US President George W. Bush, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2003)
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