France, Russia, Canada have no plans to send troops to Iraq

The foreign ministers of the three countries made the statement on the sidelines of a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialised powers here.

"Well, the issue of French troops on the ground is a nonquestion from our point of view," French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said.

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"And I can say and will say again here that there will be no French troops in Iraq, not tomorrow, nor later," he told a joint news conference after a meeting of the foreign ministers that was dominated by Iraq.

Barnier said any "exit strategy" in the Iraqi crisis was a political approach and not a military solution.

"I have said this already, and I'm saying once again that there will be no French troops, not here, not now, not tomorrow," the minister repeated.

But Barnier said France was prepared to help in the "political and economic reconstruction" of Iraq.

The whole reconstruction process would start as soon as possible, in parallel with the establishment of the interim authority on June 30 and pick up speed when a fully legitimate government is elected in January, he said.