ARAB-EUROPEAN - Jan 13 - Chirac In Talks To Rebuild Ties With Iraq.

France's Pres Jacques Chirac, holds talks in Paris with his Iraqi counterpart, Ghazi Yawar, in a fresh bid to engage with Iraq's postwar leadership and rebuild French influence and commercial ties in the region. At a lunch at the Elysee palace, Chirac offered his support for Iraqi's democratisation efforts and renewed his offer to help train the Iraqi police outside the country. However, French officials reiterated that there was no possibility of sending troops to Iraq. Last week, Chirac strongly endorsed Iraq's national elections scheduled for Jan 30. Chirac said: It is essential that as large a number of Iraqis as possible participate and thereby show their rejection of violence". After meeting Chirac, Yawar said he opposed any delay in holding the vote in spite of recent violence. He said: Elections must take place at the precise date, and we will do all in our power" to hold them. Yawar had recently called on the UN to determine whether Iraq should hold the elections on time. The US, however, is determined that the vote should go ahead as planned. Paris views Yawar as a more amenable partner than the Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi, who has previously criticised France for its reluctance to support Iraqi reconstruction. In September, Allawi angered Chirac by saying France was "playing the role of a spectator". A few weeks later, Chirac left a EU summit early, missing a meeting with Allawi. Paris denied this was intended as a snub. Since the re-election of Pres Bush, Paris has struck a more conciliatory note towards Washington. the French FM Michel Barnier said: I think 2005 should mark a new start in relations between the US and France and between the US and Europe". Chirac is aiming to meet Bush in Washington next month, although no precise date has been fixed. In November, during a conference on Iraq in Egypt, Paris and other western and Arab partners pressed the Iraqi government, without success, to hold a national reconciliation conference before this month's elections to ensure participation of the Sunni Arab minority. Sunni parties have called for a boycott and most Sunni areas are unsafe for voting. Allawi's government, however, has largely ignored the French recommendation and held only limited consultations with Sunni leaders. Officials from the US embassy in Baghdad, however, last week met with a prominent association of Sunni theologians. French officials have asked for Iraqi help in trying to trace Florence Aubenas, a reporter on the Liberation newspaper who went missing in Baghdad last week. Yawar said that she had been kidnapped and that the Iraqi authorities were doing all they could to secure her release.