LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac called for "a stable and democratic Iraq" as well as urgent efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Despite the display of unity at their summit in London, Chirac later implicitly rebuked the United States and Britain for invading Iraq when he said a collective approach to resolving international problems had to be revived.
The French leader also said he doubted the world had become a safer place since the invasion of Iraq.
However, immediately after their summit talks, Blair, an unwavering supporter of the US-led invasion in March 2003 that overthrew Saddam Hussein, said past disputes over Iraq were behind them.
He said both he and Chirac "are now working under UN Resolution 1546, both of us want to see a stable and democratic Iraq, and both of us will do what we can to ensure that that happens."
Chirac, who had opposed the war, said Iraq was the "one and only issue" over which London and Paris had disagreed. He said there now were other, more pressing concerns to address, such as African poverty and climate change.
"Who is right or wrong (over Iraq), history will tell," he said.
Chirac agreed with Blair that, at this stage, Britain and France share the common goal of establishing a democratic and peaceful Iraq, where an ongoing insurgency against US-led forces threatens to derail elections set for January.
He said he was "taken aback" by claims in the French press suggesting divisions between Britain and France.
But he reiterated his view -- expressed the night before in a BBC television interview -- that he believed the world is a more dangerous place in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion.
"...You cannot say, credibly, that the situation has significantly improved," he said.
Chirac arrived in London a week after Blair went to Washington to meet re-elected US President George W. Bush, who pledged to reach out to Europe in his second term as he pursues his war on terror.
On the Middle East, Blair said he and Chirac were "essentially agreed" on proposals hammered out with Bush on relaunching the peace process in the wake of the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last week.
"The United Kingdom and France consider there is a window of opportunity that we could have a more stable order," added Chirac, "and we should do everything we can to achieve that."
During a speech sponsored by an international affairs institute, Chirac said "reviving the Middle East peace process is an absolute priority that should rally the Americans and Europeans together with their Quartet partners."
He was referring to Russia and the United Nations, co-sponsors of the roadmap for peace in the region.
During his speech, Chirac also rejected as destabilizing efforts to solve problems based on a "logic of power" and instead called for a "revival" of a collective approach based on a reformed United Nations.
His appeal amounted to a veiled rebuke of the US-led invasion, one he said a year ago upset the multilateral approach to resolving problems.
The French president called for enlarging both the number of permanent and non-permanent members of the UN Security Council to represent the "new balances" in the world.
Britain is to hold the rotating presidency of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations, which includes France and the United States, in 2005, as well as that of the European Union in the second half of the new year.
Chirac`s visit caps the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, the diplomatic pact that ended decades of Anglo-French imperial rivalry and sealed a sometimes-strained alliance between the two European powers.
11/18/2004 - 18:25 GMT - AFP