French minister in first Iraq visit since war

PARIS, Aug 19 (Reuters) Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner arrived in Baghdad today becoming the first senior French official to visit Iraq since the beginning of the US-led war in 2003 which France vigorously opposed.

Kouchner's touch-down in Baghdad coincided with President Nicolas Sarkozy's return from a holiday in the United States which was seen as an effort to improve relations with US President George W. Bush after a bitter fallout over the war.

''At the invitation of Mr. Jalal Talabani, president of Iraq, the foreign minister has just begun an official visit to Baghdad,'' the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

''Bernard Kouchner is in Baghdad to express a French message of solidarity with the Iraqi people and to listen to the representatives of all communities.'' He is expected to meet representatives of all of Iraq's different communities and with members of the government in what a French diplomatic source said would be a listening trip.

The source could not give details of the length of the visit or of the meetings that Kouchner will hold.

Former President Jacques Chirac and his then foreign minister Dominique de Villepin led international opposition to the U.S.-led war, producing a period of frosty relations with the United States.

But Sarkozy, who was elected in May, has sought to improve relations between the two powers, saying he wanted France to be a friend of the United States.

Sarkozy paid an informal visit to the Bush family estate during his U.S. holiday where they chatted over burgers and hotdogs.

A French diplomatic source said the pair had not discussed Iraq during the lunch but that France had in the last few days informed the United States, as well as other European countries and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, of Kouchner's trip.

Kouchner's appointment after Sarkozy's election in May was seen as significant for relations with the United States and with Iraq where France has no troops but has kept an embassy.

He is well known for his humanitarian work, and has been a leading advocate of ''humanitarian intervention'' -- the right to get involved in another country's affairs if human rights are being abused.

Kouchner, co-founder of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, is also one of the few French politicians who backed military intervention in Iraq, explaining he was against war but also against Saddam Hussein's regime.

The source said the trip was part of a series of French initiatives to take a more high-profile stance on four global flashpoints -- Iraq, Darfur, Lebanon and Kosovo.

It also coincides with the fourth anniversary of the truck bomb attack on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad that killed U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, a personal friend of Kouchner whom he met while working in Kosovo.

Kouchner visited the site of the attack and laid a wreath in remembrance of those who were killed.

REUTERS sbc rk2330