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Saudi Arabia and France on Sunday issued a call for returning Iraq to Iraqi control sooner as the US-led war is edging to the end.
The call was issued by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and his visiting French counterpart Dominique de Villepin, who arrived in Riyadh Sunday on a lightning visit to Saudi Arabia at the end of a visit to the region.
De Villepin's Mideast tour, which also took him to Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, focused on the discussion of the post-war Iraq and the Mideast peace process.
After the meeting, al-Faisal noted that the two sides agreed on two main points: re-establishing the control of Iraq by the Iraqi people and the security and stability as quickly as possible; insuring "humanitarian aid for the Iraqi people in these extremely difficult circumstances."
Both Riyadh and Paris opposed the US-led war on Iraq which started on March 20 and have called for giving the UN the leading role in post-war Iraqi reconstruction.
Saudi Arabia last week called for the Iraqi people to be allowed to choose their own government and decide their own future.
At a press conference held in Beirut earlier in the day, de Villepin also affirmed his country call for a leading UN role in reconstructing Iraq.
He also had talks in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Iraq developments, means of establishing security and stability in the post-war Iraq and pushing forward the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
In Damascus, de Villepin called for an end to the war of words between the United States and Syria over the latter's alleged support for Iraq.
Meanwhile, Al-Faisal and de Villepin also discussed the roadmap peace plan on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Al-Faisal expressed hope that the so-called Quartet of the European Union, United Nations, Russia and the United States, who have drawn up the "roadmap" for peace, would "act as quickly as possible."
"We have a united assessment of the problem. We believe that the occasion is right to try to resolve the problem," said Al-Faisal.
The international community is waiting for the formation of a new cabinet by Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas, or Abu Mazen, before the announcement of the peace roadmap which envisions the establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005.
(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2003)
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