IRAQ - July 15 - Paris Will Not Send Troops.

French Pres. Jacques Chirac says that under current circumstances, France will not send troops to Iraq to help the US peace-making effort. (Chirac explains the French position in a private meeting with Czech Pres. Vaclav Klaus). Chirac says: "As the [French] foreign minister has indicated, the possibility of French participation is not conceivable within the current framework". A senior French official said Chirac himself raised the subject of Iraq and strongly ruled out any possibility of French troop participation there without a UN mandate. Chirac's position underscored a statement by French FM Dominique de Villepin last week that Paris would only consider sending troops to Iraq if they were part of a peacekeeping mission under the authority of the UN. "We would prefer that the political transition in Iraq be placed under the responsibility of the United Nations", Villepin said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro.