Britain's Straw urges European unity over Iraq

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw early today urged a deeply divided Europe to pull together to bring humanitarian relief and reconstruction to Iraq after the current conflict is over.

Speaking before he and Prime Minister Tony Blair meet other European leaders in Brussels, Straw said London would argue for "the European community to come together and recognise that we have a common agenda, working for the humanitarian relief of Iraq and its reconstruction".

He told a news conference: "Europe is much more effective when it is united than when it is divided."

The Iraq issue has split the EU down the middle and made a mockery of its dream of a common foreign policy.

Straw insisted there was wide international support for yesterday's first strikes on Iraqi targets.

Fourteen of the 25 nations which will make up the European Union after 10 mostly East European countries sign up to join the bloc next month backed the attacks, Straw said.

He added that Britain had committed £20 million ($NZ60 million) to preparation for immediate humanitarian relief and had earmarked a further £60 million for later humanitarian operations.

"It's a mark of the appalling record of (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein that Iraq is a prosperous country which has been reduced to penury, not least by the huge sums wasted on wars and on the development of mass destruction," he said.

Straw said Britain would seek a new UN resolution to deal with the post-conflict reconstruction of Iraq and insisted Saddam had left the British and Americans with "no option but to use force".

"Our message to the Iraqi people is 'We are with you,"' he said.

Straw acknowledged the Iraq issue had opened up a split between Britain, which has backed the hawkish US stance from the outset, and France which opposes military action and whose veto threat helped sink any second UN resolution.

But he expressed confidence Paris and London could work together and patch up their differences. "I think we will get through," he said.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq