It is never an encouraging sign when the fate of a country is thought to turn on one person, or one meeting. But the arrival yesterday in Iraq of Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, is an important step.

It signifies the willingness of France under President Sarkozy to work with the US in the Middle East, and even in Iraq. That move, which could lay the ground for broader international involvement in Iraq, is one of the more encouraging developments of the past months.

Kouchner’s arrival follows the corncobs-and-hamburger informal summit between George Bush and Sarkozy. It shows that Sarkozy intends to put clear distance between himself and his predecessor Jacques Chirac, even on the most sensitive subject of Iraq, where Chirac had broadcast to the world his satisfaction at having foreseen the US’s predicament. Since Sarkozy’s election in May the two countries have begun cooperating on Iran, Lebanon, and Syria; Kouchner’s visit offers the hope of extending that to Iraq.

He arrives as relations between Britain and the US over Iraq have turned irritable; it is hard to see that as a coincidence. As Britain plans its withdrawal from Iraq the US needs a new partner, even if merely a diplomatic one, and France is well placed to step into that gap.

France has already hosted several Iraqi leaders but Kouchner’s three-day visit is the first by a French official since the 2003 invasion. “France is ready to play a role in the fight against the violence”, he said after talks with President Talabani and a flurry of meetings with other representatives of the bitterly divided communities. “We want to be at the side of this large and important country at the birth of its democracy,” he added, calling the violence unacceptable.

What is there for France in involving itself in Iraq? A lot, given that it has no need to take responsibility for the outcome. It stands to gain the step forward on the world stage which Chirac had been seeking by opposing the Iraq invasion, wanting to set up France as an alternative pole to that of the American superpower. At that time Kouchner was a rare French voice in at least tolerating the invasion, calling his fellow officials “America-phobic”.

Chirac succeeded in shrinking support for the invasion to a devastatingly slender column, but the strategy then backfired.

The instinctive deep support for the US from Central and Eastern European countries, and at the start for the invasion itself from Italy and Spain, isolated him in his antiAmericanism, with his lone companion Gerhard Schröder, then German Chancellor. Both have been replaced by pro-US leaders.

Grandstanding aside, what can France contribute? It is helpful to have a country other than the US, Britain, or Iraq’s immediate neighbours, try to seek out common interests among Iraqis. US attempts to broker a deal are inextricably bound up with its urgent desire to reduce troops; the pressure on Bush – and his successor – is visible to the world.

France may even be able to open the door to the reentry of the United Nations in the conflict, although that is hardly the panacea that some suppose. “One part of the fight against violence and the restoration of peace and democracy in the country lies with the UN,” Kouchner said. “France approves this path and we will assist in this direction.”

Kouchner was a personal friend of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN envoy who was killed in the huge blast at the UN compound in Iraq in August 2003, which led to the UN’s exit.

Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, also suggested that French companies help to rebuild the country, a potentially lucrative prospect, but a distant one, given the current violence.

Kouchner was equivocal about how active a role France wanted to play. “This is just the beginning, I hope, of sort of an end to the crisis,” he said (although many would dispute even that).

“We want to play our cards and our role, but not today, neither tomorrow, but yes, one of these days.”

That is carefully hedged, but is still an unambiguous expression of interest – with more delicate intent, say, than Russia planting a flag on the ocean bed at the North Pole, but in diplomatic terms, every bit as clear.

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