Chirac urges Chechen diplomacy

Chirac, left, and Putin discussed Chechnya

MOSCOW, Russia -- French President Jacques Chirac has told Russia to find political solution to its Chechen problem.

Chirac, whose stance on rebel Chechnya has undermined ties with Russia, said on Tuesday that his country had learned the hard way that military force was no solution to separatism.

The French president, who fought in the eight-year campaign which culminated in Algeria's independence, was speaking in Moscow during a visit in which he met President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

Referring to France's troubled history in dealing with Algerian separatists during an interview with a Moscow radio station, he said: "Attempts to find a military solution always lead to deplorable consequences, even when it is not what leaders are after.

"You must always look for a political solution. That is what I told President Vladimir Putin."

At a joint news conference on Monday, Putin said major fighting had subsided in Chechnya and that Moscow was mainly battling foreign mercenaries.

He said France would have acted in the same way had it faced a similar threat.

"I have always said and reconfirmed again that France, which in the past encountered similar problems, is convinced that there is no military solution to them," Chirac told Ekho Moskvy radio.

France fought separatist guerrillas from 1954 to 1962 in its north African colony of Algeria before General Charles de Gaulle, withdrew troops and granted independence despite an outcry from nationalists at home.

Chechnya has bedevilled relations since Putin, then prime minister, sent troops into the rebel territory in 1999 to crush separatists for the second time in the post-Soviet period.

Chirac and Putin were also divided on former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal.

Moscow has denounced the move as a threat to stability in the Balkan region.

Chirac said he understood Putin's reasoning, but said a man "responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands" could not escape justice.

"I can understand his point of view but I don't share it," he said.

"I believe Yugoslavia will build its future on the values of democracy and respect for human rights and not on the values of the past."

Chirac later visited former President Boris Yeltsin.

Yeltsin, who lives in retirement near Moscow, was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying he hoped Chirac's relations with Putin would "grow into a friendship."