French President Jacques Chirac invoked international law, world stability and the future of the Middle East on Tuesday as he denounced the U.S. war ultimatum to Iraq as an unjustified act against a phantom threat. Chirac, championing a multipolar global order against Washington's unilateral approach, said in his first reaction to President Bush's ultimatum that a large majority of world opinion opposed the pending war in Iraq.

The strongest anti-war voice in the West, Chirac said the U.S. ultimatum would compromise future efforts to deal with crises linked to arms of mass destruction -- an apparent reference to North Korea's nuclear program.

"Whether it concerns the necessary disarmament of Iraq or the desirable change of the regime in this country, there is no justification for a unilateral decision to resort to force," Chirac said in a short address before television cameras.

"No matter how events evolve now, this ultimatum challenges our view of international relations. It puts the future of a people, the future of a region and world stability at stake."

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, another leader in the "non-nyet-nein" anti-war front France formed with Russia and Germany, also declared on Tuesday he saw no justification for war and no reason to end arms inspections meant to disarm Iraq.

"My question was and is: does the degree of threat stemming from the Iraqi dictator justify a war that will bring certain death to thousands of innocent men, women and children? My answer was and is: no," he said on German television.

FRANCE MARCHES TO DIFFERENT DRUMMER

Throughout the Iraq crisis, France has consistently argued it opposed Washington's war plans not out of anti-Americanism but from a conviction that the United Nations was the only body authorized to order an attack on a sovereign country.

"France has acted in the name of the primacy of law and by virtue of its concept of relations among peoples and among nations," Chirac said to explain why France has marched to a different drummer during the showdown over a pro-war resolution.

Now that its veto threat has blocked a Security Council vote and forced the United States and Britain to wage war without a U.N. mandate, France can be expected to stress the central role it sees for U.N. humanitarian aid and reconstruction efforts in an Iraq controlled by the U.S. military, diplomats said.

"Iraq today does not represent an immediate threat that justifies an immediate war," Chirac said.

"This is a serious decision, while Iraq's disarmament is underway and the inspections have shown that they were a credible alternative for disarming this country."

In an apparent reference to North Korea, which has expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors and reactivated atomic facilities that could reprocess plutonium for bombs, Chirac added:

"This is also a decision that compromises in the future the methods of peaceful resolution of crises linked to the proliferation of arms of mass destruction."

Chirac appealed for respect for international law and called on other countries "to preserve the unity of the Security Council by staying in the framework set by resolution 1441."

He ended with the words: "Throwing off the legitimacy of the United Nations, preferring force over the law, means taking on a heavy responsibility."

Earlier on Tuesday, Chirac's office issued a first reaction to Bush's ultimatum to Saddam Hussein which gave the Iraqi president 48 hours to leave Iraq or face war.

"This unilateral decision is contrary to the wishes of the Security Council and of the international community, who wish to pursue the disarmament of Iraq in accordance with (U.N.) resolution 1441," the Elysee presidential palace said.

PHOTO CAPTION

French President Jacques Chirac appears in a television address in Paris, March 18, 2003. Chirac invoked international law, world stability and the future of the Middle East on Tuesday as he denounced the U.S. war ultimatum to Iraq as an unjustified act against a phantom threat. (Reuters)