THE leaders of Russia, France and Germany angrily denounced American policy in Iraq yesterday and called for the restoration of United Nations authority.

At the start of a summit in St Petersburg, President Putin criticised the United States and Britain and gave warning of the danger of the world sliding “into an endless series of conflicts”.

President Putin, President Chirac and Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, were the most vocal critics of the use of force against Iraq. Yesterday all three emphasised the centrality of the UN to the future of global conflict-resolution. “We have a joint view of the future of the world. We want a multipolar world,” President Chirac said. “Our conception naturally excludes unilateral approaches and that is why we want the UN to be the legal framework for peace and democracy.”

A senior Kremlin aide had said that the summit would look for “non-confrontational” ways of co-operating with Washington and London. Mr Putin signalled that he was ready to discuss writing off the $8 billion (£5.1billion) of debt Iraq owed Russia, but on other issues he seemed in no mood to compromise.

Almost gloatingly referring to the failure of the Allies to find weapons of mass destruction, President Putin said: “Either they did not have them or they were in such a state they couldn’t use them. So why did we fight this war?” Western diplomats in Moscow said President Putin, Herr Schröder and President Chirac were counting the diplomatic cost of opposing what looks increasingly like a successful operation. “The real risk here is that they get completely sidelined, made to look irrelevant,” one diplomat said.

The three countries do have one card to play. At a time of economic weakness, Washington may be prepared to make concessions to the UN to avoid footing the entire bill for humanitarian assistance.

France and Russia, for their part, are concerned that they may be cut out of lucrative oil contracts in Iraq.

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