France steps in where US fails to go

PARIS - After Israeli forces killed dozens of women and children in the Lebanese village of Qana, Lebanon barred the door to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice but rolled out the welcome mat to her French counterpart, Philippe Douste-Blazy.

There could be no clearer symbol of where France and America stand in the Middle East popularity stakes.

After years of being pushed into the wings of the Middle East stage, France is bidding for a comeback.

France was the first Western power to criticise Israel for its response to rocket attacks by Hizbollah. It was the first to dispatch emissaries to Lebanon, in a show of support to its former colony, and to send ships and planes laden with humanitarian aid.

On the diplomatic front, it is at the vanguard of countries demanding action to compensate for dangerous inaction that could cause the conflict to escalate.

France is lobbying for an immediate ceasefire, followed by a political deal between the warring parties and deployment of an international stabilisation force.

The tools for this initiative are France's contacts with the key players and a fund of goodwill that it has patiently built up in Muslim countries. Both are assets that the Americans, seen scathingly in the Middle East as a one-sided ally of Israel, do not have.

Douste-Blazy's visit to Beirut was the third since Hizbollah triggered the conflict on July 12 by kidnapping a pair of Israeli soldiers.

He held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, whose country supports Hizbollah. Neither side commented on how the talks went but the fact that they took place at all shows Paris can open doors in the powderkeg region.

"Time is pressing, more than ever ... If we do nothing, then tensions are going to escalate. Our plan represents an opportunity worth seizing," said Douste-Blazy.

"Public opinion in the Middle East is radicalising. We have to be careful, because if we do not swiftly have talks between all parties then we risk a conflict which will sweep over the entire region and turn the Muslim world against the West."

France's precious political capital in the Middle East derives from its persistent support for the Palestinian cause, its defiance of Washington in refusing to join the Iraq war and its backing of Lebanon's elected Government.

A French diplomat said France had some contact, "albeit limited", with Hizbollah and good relations with Iran, which with Syria backs the hardline Shiite militia.

Indeed, Douste-Blazy, in an interview with the Figaro, went out of his way to praise Iran as a "great country" that played a "stabilising role" in the region if one set aside the controversial Iranian nuclear programme.

On the other hand, France has said it will have no contact with Syria, whose troops were forced out of Lebanon as a result of a Franco-American initiative at the UN in 2004 - a success that won Paris brownie points with the Bush administration.