France says troops alone won't solve Iraq's woes (Reuters)

France says troops alone won't solve Iraq's woes

Tue Jan 30, 7:48 AM ET

PARIS (Reuters) - Iraq needs a political solution more than it needs an increase
in the number of foreign troops, France's foreign minister said in his country's
latest swipe at U.S. policy in the Middle East.

President Bush has pledged to send an extra 21,500 troops to Iraq as part of a
new strategy aimed at quelling sectarian violence.

"The problem is not so much the level of forces engaged as the basic premise
upon which this 'new plan' is still based: the conviction that there is a way out
of the military crisis in Iraq," Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said in an
opinion column published in French daily Le Monde on Tuesday.

"The answer can only be political. The insurrection's resonance would only be
boosted by the intensification of military operations," he said, reiterating his call
for a date to be set for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

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