Russia and France called Thursday for the United Nations to consider lifting sanctions against Iraq in "a few months," and for an early meeting of the contact group on Bosnia to reset policy following the U.S. decision to stop enforcing the arms embargo on former Yugoslavia.


On the third day of a visit to Paris, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev appeared to find common cause in talks with his French counterpart, Alain Juppe, on attitudes toward Iraq, Bosnia and NATO. The positions are generally opposed by the United States.


Juppe said after the talks with Kozyrev that the two countries had agreed that the UN should consider in a few months lifting the ban on Iraqi oil exports if Baghdad continues to cooperate on arms control.


The UN, Juppe said, must take stock of Iraq's recent recognition of Kuwait, which he called "a major new factor." The deal was brokered by Kozyrev.


Juppe told reporters that, if Iraq continued to cooperate on weapons, "we will have to go ahead and consider in a few months the conditions under which paragraph 22 of Resolution 687 could be implemented." Paragraph 22 covers the lifting of the UN ban on Iraqi exports.


Both Russia and France are eager for sanctions to be lifted from Iraq, which is heavily indebted to both of them. As the successor state to the Soviet Union, Russia is owed $7 billion by Baghdad. The United States, however, has already made clear its opposition to any move toward lifting the sanctions.


The two foreign ministers also agreed Thursday that ministers in the five-nation contact group on Bosnia should meet by early December to clarify their aims after the United States decided to stop enforcing a UN arms embargo.


"It appeared to us necessary that the contact group meet at ministerial level in the next few days or weeks, in any case by early December," Juppe said.


Juppe has criticized the U.S. decision to pull out of the embargo on Bosnia as "a blow to international law."


But the United States rejected the comments Thursday, Reuters reported.


"We have told the French that their criticism is inaccurate and divisive," spokesman David Johnson told re porters in Washington.


Britain and France, who have said they would pull out their UN peacekeeping troops if the embargo collapses, have called a meeting of contact group experts Thursday in London.


The foreign ministers of France, Britain and Russia will meet Friday in Paris to discuss efforts to end the Bosnian war after Washington's surprise decision last week. The full contact group also includes the United States and Germany.


In a third point of accord the two ministers made an apparent criticism of Washington's desire to speed up the enlargement of NATO to Central Europe.


Kozyrev said that existing security structures in Europe were not appropriate for the challenges of the post-Cold War period.


"I think the French are aware ... of the need to avoid new barriers, new cleavages on the European continent and of the fact that none of the existing structures, established in a different era with different aims, can be considered adequate to meet the challenges of our time," he said.


Juppe said France fully agreed that there must be "no new separation or division between blocs" in Europe.


France, which has traditionally pursued a more independent foreign policy within the Western alliance, has not been a full member of NATO since the mid-1960s.


Yury Davydov, a European specialist at the USA-Canada Institute, said the convergence of views between Russia and France was a logical step by two powers who had common interests and wanted a more "flexible" international stance than Washington.


"There has always been a lot in common between our positions," he said. "In Bosnia there is a perception that it is a European problem and it should not be allowed to worsen."


(Reuters, MT)