SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier will submit "constructive" proposals to an international conference on Iraq to be held here Tuesday, a French official told Xinhua on Monday.

    The proposals will focus on security and the pullout of the US-led multinational forces, said the official, who asked not to benamed.

    "The Iraqi crisis must be solved through political ways, and France would like to coordinate with concerned parties and call on them to relinquish armed operations and push forward Iraq'spolitical process in sound and stable environment," the officialsaid.

    France, a vocal opponent of the US-led war in Iraq, has appealed to various Iraqi forces and elements to renounce violence to help the war-torn country peacefully fulfil a political transition, hesaid.

    On divergence concerning the presence of the multinationalforces in Iraq between France and the United States, the official said that a timetable of the withdrawal should be set and the United Nations should play a major role in Iraq's political process.

    He said that France respects Iraq's sovereignty and its territorial integrity, and the Iraqi people should have the right to determine their future through "democratic" means."The mandate for the US-led forces to stay in Iraq is not open-ended, and this will be written in the final communique of the international conference," he said.

    He added that the conference provides Paris with an opportunity to prove that it can be a player in the process without having troops on the ground. Enditem