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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (44047)	4/15/2003 6:00:40 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50167

PARIS: French President Jacques Chirac and US counterpart George W. Bush took a small step Tuesday towards bridging their deep differences over the war in Iraq, speaking for the first time in two months, a press report said. The 20-minute telephone conversation came at Chirac's initiative, with his spokesman Catherine Colonna calling it a "positive" exchange. The French president told Bush of France's willingness to act in a pragmatic way on issues relating to the post-war reconstruction of Iraq, Colonna said. Chirac listed disarmament, the issue of sanctions, the shape of an interim government for Iraq and the country's oil resources as the key questions on the table. In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer termed the call "a businesslike conversation." He said Chirac's use of "pragmatic" to describe France's approach to reconstruction had been "an interesting choice of words. I don't know how to interpret it. He said Bush and Chirac has agreed that Syria should not harbor Iraqi leaders, and had discussed the situation in the Middle East and the road map for peace. The president said he hoped he would be able to release the road map soon. Fleischer said the two leaders also discussed the meeting of the G-8 industrialized countries in France at the end of June, saying Bush "is planning to go."