His Majesty King Abdullah and French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, who paid a brief visit here yesterday, stressed that the UN and the world community must shoulder the responsibility to help the Iraqi people rebuild their homeland and preserve Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity. King Abdullah stressed in his talks with de Villepin the need for "extensive, relentless efforts at the current stage to relaunch the Mideast peace process."

At a press conference after separate talks with the French envoy, Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher underlined the similarity of Amman's and Paris' views on the two core issues of Iraq and the peace process. "France is an extremely close country and we share similar views on how to deal with postwar Iraq and how to deal with the Palestinian issue," Muasher said.