By NNN-KUNA,
Baghdad : French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has expressed France’s readiness to arm and train the Iraqi army.
In his meeting here Sunday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Kouchner said the security situation in Iraq was improving and that conditions were getting better.
Kouchner also expressed satisfaction over efforts by the Iraqis to take charge of their own country, saying they were making “progress.”
“The Iraqis themselves, with their army, their administration, are taking charge of their own problems,” Kouchner said.
Meanwhile, Al-Maliki said that Iraq was keen to be armed with enhanced French munitions in addition to consolidating cooperation in health matters and over admission of Iraqi patients in French hospitals.
Al-Maliki also said that foreign intervention into Iraq’s internal affairs had created havoc in the securty situation in the country and strengthened the armed militias.
Kouchner arrived here on Saturday.