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Wednesday, September 23, 2009 PARIS: France's foreign minister said in an interview Wednesday he was not in favour of plans mooted by some US lawmakers to impose fuel sanctions on Iran to make it come clean on its nuclear programme."I think this is a bit dangerous," Bernard Kouchner told a news publication.Kouchner, speaking in New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly, warned that a fuel blockade would harm the Iranian people, "and mainly poor people."French officials however said their government had not yet decided its position on such a measure, the paper said, adding that analysts believed that if France came out against fuel sanctions the idea would probably be dropped.The UN Security Council has already imposed three sets of sanctions against Iran over its refusal to freeze its uranium enrichment activities which could be used to build an atomic bomb. Iran denies it wants to make an atomic bomb.US lawmakers have been pushing Pre...

Thursday, August 27, 2009 PARIS: France will push for the G-8 group of industrial powers to admit the major emerging economies and thus become a G-14 when Paris presides over the group in 2011, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday. The G-8 already includes the biggest emerging economies in some of its deliberations, but retains its own identity as the most influential world economic policy forum, despite mounting calls to broaden its base. 'I note with pleasure that the transformation of the G-8 into the G-14 has taken a decisive step forward,' Sarkozy told a meeting of French ambassadors in Paris, noting that France has supported Brazil's call for an end to the G-8. 'The Canadian presidency in 2010 will conduct the bulk of its summit as the G-14 and we intend to totally finish the transformation into the G-14 under the French presidency in 2011,' he promised. Already at this year's G-8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, the G-8 - Britain, Canada, France, Ger...