Chirac retracts Iran bomb remarks

The office of French President Jacques Chirac has issued a statement stressing France's opposition to Iran possessing a nuclear bomb.

This follows confusion caused by an interview the president gave to two US newspapers and a French magazine.

In it, he said it would not be very dangerous for Iran to possess a bomb or two, adding that the real danger was from nuclear proliferation.

He later contacted the papers to say his remarks had been oversimplified.

Mr Chirac's original comments on Iran were made in an interview with the New York Times, the Paris-based International Herald Tribune and the French magazine the Nouvel Observateur.

They attracted attention for two reasons: first, on the face of it, they contradicted European Union policy of pressurising Tehran to abandon its nuclear programme.

"It was an oversimplification... It is a formulation that I am taking back"
President Jacques Chirac, quoted by the Nouvel Observateur

But they also raised the issue of the French president's health a month before he was due to announce whether he would seek a third term in office.

Mr Chirac was admitted to hospital in late 2005 with a blood vessel problem which affected his vision.

Since then there have been reports that he has occasionally struggled with his concentration.

In retracting his remarks about an Iranian bomb, the French president admitted to the journalists involved that he had not paid enough attention to what he was saying during the interview.

Mr Chirac's office has now put out a statement stressing that France is totally opposed to a nuclear-armed Iran and blaming the American newspapers for tendentious reporting of the interview.

Nonetheless, the whole episode is likely to fuel debate about how committed France is to the West's policy of isolating and punishing Tehran for its refusal to give up its nuclear ambitions.

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