By HARRY DUNPHY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States wants ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations to put aside their differences over Iraq and work together to help the Arab nation, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Friday.
Bush met briefly with the ministers before they began talks on Iraq and other issues.
McClellan said Bush and the ministers talked about the "mission they're working to accomplish in Iraq and about the importance of putting aside past differences and all of us working together."
In response to a question about remarks by the French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier that France would never contribute troops to Iraq, McClellan said the United States has always urged other countries to make their own decisions about Iraq troops.
They also talked about trying to advance political and economic reform in the broader Middle East and Bush's vision of an Israeli and a Palestine state, he said.
After meeting with Bush the ministers went to the State Department for talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Powell said he believed the G-8 nations "want to see a U.N. resolution that provides legitimacy to this interim (Iraqi) government, gives the U.N. an expanded role to get the country ready for elections. And I think all of my G-8 colleagues will be supportive of that."
Powell's comments came in an interview with Al Arabiya, an Arabic language television broadcaster.
He said the ministers also will talk about democratic reform in the Middle East.
"We'll take note of the different ideas that exist within the European Union and within the United States," he said. "And hopefully we'll have proposals that we can present to the G-8 summit leaders for them to help Arab leaders move forward down a path of reform."
The ministers are preparing for the G-8 summit of the major industrialized nations --the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia - in the U.S. state of Georgia next month.
France was a staunch opponent of the war in Iraq, and Barnier ruled out sending any French troops to be part of the multilateral force. He spoke to reporters in New York Thursday after a working dinner Thursday with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
He said France will work "in a constructive spirit" on a new U.N. resolution dealing with the transfer of sovereignty, and he stressed that France and America "have always been friends and allies."
Facebook
Twitter