"The stand of France is clear that any action in Iraq must be under the UN and Pakistan has an identical stand and there is no difference between the two," Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said after talks in Paris with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.

Hayat was addressing a press conference on his return from a visit to Algeria and Egypt via Paris, where he spent Wednesday and Thursday.

His meeting Thursday with Sarkozy was important "as both sides reiterated their stance on Iraq crisis and shared views about the situation arising out of US-UK attacks on Iraq," Hayat said.

He also conveyed Pakistan's "biggest concern" that Israel and Pakistan's arch-rival India might take advantage of the situation in Iraq to raise aggression in the Palestinian territories and Kashmir respectively.

"While world attention is focused on the Iraq war, India and Israel might feel encouraged to step against atrocities in Kashmir and Palestine respectively," Hayat said.

France led the anti-war camp in the bitterly divided UN Security Council as the US and UK sought the 15-member body's approval to invade Iraq to disarm President Saddam Hussein's regime of alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Washington and London singled out France for their failure to raise enough support in the Security Council for a pro-war resolution.

Pakistan, one of the council's 10 non-permanent members, never publicly declared how it would vote on a resolution authorising war, but ruling party officials said the cabinet decided to abstain from any such vote.

Pakistan was always opposed to any military campaign without UN approval, and it has "deplored" the US-led invasion which began on March 20.

WAR.WIRE