After talks with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, de Villepin insisted that the UN should "from now on" play a key role in Iraq "especially in the humanitarian field."

The three ministers also voiced their concern over the humanitarian situation in Iraq, and Ivanov called for hostilities to end.

"We are all aware that we are in an open crisis in Iraq, with all the dramas that that implies. The first urgency is humanitarian... Every perspective on the future of Iraq must take into account the state of Iraq after the war," de Villepin said.

"In such a serious open crisis the very principle of international legitimacy is a matter to which we are all attached and on which there can be no discussions," he said.

According to Ivanov: "Today we must insist on an end to hostilities as quickly as possible... An end to the war can only serve everyone's interests."

Fischer said the three countries shared "a very great convergence of views on the central role of the UN."

SPACE.WIRE