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France, Russia and Germany on Monday evening adopted a "common declaration", calling for pursuit and "substantial reinforcement" of the United Nations weapons inspections in Iraq.
French President Jacques Chirac made this announcement at a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin who arrived in Paris in the afternoon for a three-day state visit.
The three nations agree that "there still exists an alternative to war" on the Iraqi crisis, said Chirac. "Nothing justifies a war now," he said.
"There are no indisputable proofs in the current situation," he said, referring to the so-called "inescapable evidences" about Iraq's concealing weapons of mass destruction presented by Washington to the UN Security Council on Feb. 5.
France does not question the trans-Atlantic solidarity but shares a different opinion from the United States on the Iraqi issue which carries a moral significance, he said.
For his part, Putin reaffirmed his opposition to the use of force on Iraq, saying that a war risks heavy consequences.
He said the Russian air force could participate, "in case of need", in the reinforcement of the UN inspections in Iraq.
Paris, Moscow and Berlin also stressed that "the debate on the means to achieve the disarmament of Iraq must keep going on in the spirit of friendship and respect that characterize our relations with the United States and other nations," said the statement.
The trans-Atlantic rift over Iraq deepened Monday as France, Belgium and Germany used their veto in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to block the US request for military support in case of war on Iraq.
The triple veto was seen as a deep division within NATO, one of the worst in its history.
(Xinhua News Agency February 11, 2003)
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