Paris Stresses Independent Role : Would Still Offer Hussein Mideast Peace Conference

BONN —  French officials, meeting with Secretary of State James A. Baker III today, stuck to an independent approach for resolving the Persian Gulf crisis by offering Saddam Hussein a Mideast peace conference if Iraq withdraws from Kuwait.

In Washington, President Bush called Baker’s mission to Geneva to meet with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz on Wednesday “possibly the final chance” to resolve the Iraqi conflict peacefully. He said giving Hussein a chance to save face would be a dangerous course.

Bonn was buzzing with diplomacy the day before Baker’s long-awaited meeting with the Iraqi foreign minister. Jordan’s King Hussein arrived without fanfare for a meeting with Germany’s president, Richard von Weizsaecker.

Traveling across Europe, Baker was working to create a united front within the anti-Iraqi alliance in advance of the meeting with Aziz.

In the face of U.S. opposition to a peace conference, French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas stressed his government’s independent course while saying France shared in the determination of the United States to have Iraq pull its troops out of Kuwait by next Tuesday.

“You know the position of the United States and France,” Dumas said as Baker craned an ear to an American interpreter’s translation.

“I would remind you,” Dumas said, “France supports an international conference since 1983 on the Israeli-Palestinian situation. So it is not a new position.”

In a videotaped speech beamed to 127 nations, Bush declared that the world cannot afford to accept anything less than “Iraq’s complete and unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait.”

“I know that pressures are now building to provide Saddam some means of saving face, or to accept a withdrawal that is less than unconditional,” Bush said. “The danger in this course should be clear to all.

“I didn’t send Secretary Baker to Geneva to compromise or to offer concessions,” Bush said.