STAN BAILEY
News staff writer
MONTGOMERY - France stands ready to help rebuild Iraq after national elections in January despite sharp differences with the United States in the past over whether the war was necessary, the French ambassador said here Thursday.

"We had a big difference over the necessity of the war in Iraq, but that's past, and now together we have to make Iraq a success story," said Jean-David Levitte, France's ambassador to the United States.

"If the elections take place at the end of January as we hope, and we support the process, then it will create a new situation which will help other countries like France to join more and more."

Levitte was in Montgomery to address several hundred officers at Maxwell Air Force Base and for a speech to the Alabama World Affairs Council meeting at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. [...]

"My message was very simple," Levitte said in an interview after his speech, which was not open to the public. "For more than 200 years, we have been allies and friends, and today on most issues we do agree, and we are working hand-in-hand. That's what we're doing in the war against terror, and that's so important."

"What we know now is that the Bush administration is extending a hand of friendship and cooperation to European partners," said Levitte. "And this is greeted with great appreciation by European leaders, and especially by President (Jacques) Chirac. We are exactly in the same mood in Paris. Let's work together."