"The war in Iraq is tragic but I believe that everything was done to prevent it," said de Villepin, whose government, together with Germany and Russia, strongly opposed the US-British military intervention.

"Now it is our task to do everything to preserve the union of the international community," he added, following talks in Rome with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

The United Nations must have a central role in Iraq's political and economic reconstruction, he said.

De Villepin also voiced concern over the growing danger of a schism between the West and the Arab world over the invasion of Iraq.

Earlier on Friday, De Villepin met his Russian and German counterparts in Paris for discussions on the future of Iraq.

The Iraq crisis has strained relations within the European Union -- with France and Germany leading the opposition to the US hardline stance and Britain, Spain and Italy backing Washington.

"Beyond unity we also have the responsibility of coping with a daily emergency, particularly in humanitarian terms," de Villepin said of the Iraq crisis.

"Everything has to be done to ensure that aid gets there. The international community has a duty to provide assistance."

"The United Nations must play a central role in (Iraq's) political and economic reconstruction after seecurity has been ensures on the ground," the minister said, adding: "The forces present have a particular responsibility."

Many European countries are pressing for a central role for the UN in Iraq's post-war administration but the US has made clear it will reserve for itself and Britain a free hand in determining how the country is run until it decides otherwise.

Echoing his French counterpart, Frattini also insisted the UN had a major role in post-war Iraq, "not only in the emergency phase of humanitarian aid but even more in reconstruction so that Iraq can be restored to the Iraqi people".

"Europe has an important role to play too," he added.

Earlier at a new conference in Paris after talks with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, de Villepin issued an implicit warning to the US not to monopolise the allocation of reconstruction contracts in Iraq but to ensure the international community was involved.

"The idea that Iraq can be some kind of Eldorado, a cake that countries can share out, seems to me to run counter to good sense and to the reality of a population and a nation which are right now being put to the test and need to be rebuilt," he said.

SPACE.WIRE