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Germany and France are working jointly on a disarmament plan for Iraq as a means of avoiding a looming military strike by the United States, a German government spokesman confirmed in Berlin Saturday.
The plan was disclosed by the latest issue of the German news magazine Der Spiegel.
The spokesman said there had been "joint thinking about concrete peaceful alternatives" to avert a war.
Spiegel reported that one approach under consideration was to launch the Franco-German plan as a draft resolution at the Security Council. It said Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's and President Jacques Chirac's staff had been working on the plan since the start of this year.
Under the joint plan, the UN arms inspectors would be tripled in number and a UN force with executive authority would be sent into Iraq to guarantee that it really destroys weapons of mass destruction.
Germany would contribute troops to the force, which would stay for a period of years.
The plan also includes declaring the whole of Iraq a no-fly zone so that French Mirage IV reconnaissance jets could assist weapons inspectors. At present, the allies maintain a ban on Iraqi military air movements over the north and the south of the country.
The Franco-German plan also involves a tight web of trade sanctions including improved export controls in the world's industrialized nations to prevent illegal sales to Iraq, plus agreements with Iraq's neighbors to halt rampant oil smuggling that is now believed to be the Iraqi regime's main source of funding, it said.
(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2003)
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