Chirac relishes role as leader of opposition to U.S. plans for

PARIS -- After seven unremarkable years in office spent mostly fending off corruption scandals, French President Jacques Chirac risked becoming the most forgettable chief executive in modern French history.

But he may have found a way to make his mark on French destiny and allow his nation to take what it feels is its rightful place on the world stage. Like a soufflé, Chirac is suddenly rising now that the heat has been turned on.

Proclaiming himself a defender of peace, he is leading the opposition to President Bush's effort to assemble broad support for a possible war to disarm Iraq. Both leaders are forcefully standing their ground, and the question is whether either will blink.

At the same time, Chirac has angered some countries in Central and Eastern Europe, former Soviet satellites that have sided with Bush, by telling them they should not meddle -- "keep quiet."

Chirac's international popularity has soared as he has snubbed the Bush administration and threatened to use France's veto in the U.N. Security Council to block any U.S.-British resolution on Iraq.

The battle is broader than Iraq, though. To the French, the crisis is not only about stopping Saddam Hussein but also about neutralizing the United States' overwhelming power in the post-Cold War era.

Philippe Moreau Defarges of the French Institute for International Relations thinks Chirac is using the crisis partly to try to protect the French-German lock on European leadership, which could be more difficult to maintain once the 15-member European Union expands to 25 nations in 2004.

"Chirac wants to show that France is a great power," Moreau Defarges said. "There is a kind of confrontation going on now in Europe over who is going to be in charge."

French opposition to war also stems from its long-standing economic interests in Iraq. France also worries that a war would lead to Islamic militant terrorism at home and cause other strains with its large Arab-Muslim population.

Chirac's government is further concerned about preserving good relations in the Arab Middle East.

"French diplomacy has been pro-Arab since Charles de Gaulle, so we have taken a different approach from the Americans to pursue diplomacy," said Jean-Dominique Guiliani of the Robert Schuman Foundation, a Paris think tank. "It may not be the most efficient way, but that is the reality."

Not everything has gone Chirac's way as he tries to emerge as leader of a European counterbalance to American power.

He came under a barrage of criticism from central and eastern Europe governments after he scolded them for supporting Washington on Iraq, saying they should "keep quiet." He warned that the pro-U.S. stand could jeopardize their chances of joining the European Union.

Chirac's remarks only incited his targets, underlining how the former communist countries are putting their trust in the Americans, not the French.

"Chirac's outburst must be understood as the recognition that a dream is beginning to unravel," the Romanian newspaper Ziua said.

Dapper, tall and charming, the conservative Chirac has surprised some by leading the confrontation with Washington.

He has obvious affection for the United States, where he spent a part of his youth working as a soda jerk at a Howard Johnson's and fell in love for the first time. He was the first head of state to meet with President Bush after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and vowed that France would fight alongside the United States in the war against terrorism.

Chirac also has avoided painting himself into a corner. Unlike Germany's government, he hasn't ruled out joining in a U.S.-led war to unseat Saddam. He argues only that for now, the U.N. inspectors looking for banned weapons in Iraq should be given more time.

Still, the U.S.-French rift is the most serious since President Charles de Gaulle pulled out of NATO's integrated military command in 1966 over his objections to American influence.

Whether French troops will be there to back up U.S. forces if the shooting starts in Iraq is unknown. What is certain is that France will continue to challenge the United States' status as the only superpower.

Alain Peyrefitte, information minister under de Gaulle, once quoted the late president as saying he believing Europe offered France "the opportunity of becoming what she ceased to be at Waterloo, the first nation in the world."

There is no indication France has abandoned the pursuit.