Paris

French leader: U.S. made ‘grave mistake’

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said Thursday the United States erred morally, politically and strategically by going to war with Iraq.

“It should be said, there was an alternative to war,” Raffarin said in a television interview. Going to war was a moral error, he said, when “one can disarm in other ways.”

Raffarin spoke a day before the foreign ministers of France, Russia and Germany — the three countries most vocal in their opposition to the war — were to meet in Paris. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin was then headed for a meeting at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II, who is opposed to the war.

France has been a leading voice against military action in Iraq, pushing for more weapons inspections to force Saddam Hussein to disarm.

West Virginia

Dad: Rescued POW wasn’t shot or stabbed

The father of rescued POW Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch said Thursday she was in great spirits after her first surgery and said doctors told him she had not been shot or stabbed during her ordeal.

“We have heard and seen reports that she had multiple gunshot wounds and a knife stabbing. The doctor has not seen any of this,” Gregory Lynch Sr. said.

Lynch said his 19-year-old daughter, who is at a military hospital in Germany, had surgery on her back.

“She didn’t have any feeling in her feet,” Lynch Sr. said outside his Palestine home. More surgery was scheduled for today on his daughter’s fractured legs and right arm, he said.

Belgium

Powell emphasizes U.S. role in postwar Iraq

Secretary of State Colin Powell told Washington’s European allies and friends Thursday the United States — not the United Nations — must have the lead role in Iraq’s postwar reconstruction.

In a fast-paced series of meetings with his NATO and European Union counterparts at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Powell did not resolve differences surrounding the nature of the U.N. role after fighting is done in Iraq.

Powell’s comments clashed with the view in European capitals that the reconstruction of Iraq should be guided by the United Nations, not the United States or Britain.

“We must stabilize Iraq and the region,” said French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin. “The United Nations is the only international organization that can give legitimacy to this.”

Washington, D.C.

Lawmaker pushes plan to punish France

Undeterred by a defeat in committee, a Republican congressman is pushing ahead with a plan intended to prevent French and German companies from getting U.S. contracts to rebuild Iraq.

The proposal failed in a 35-27 vote Tuesday in the House Appropriations Committee, but Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., prevailed in the full House. His amendment was approved on a voice vote Thursday night.

Nethercutt offered an amendment, to an emergency war-spending bill, that would bar any rebuilding funds from going to businesses based in a country that “publicly expressed” opposition to the war.