Frence’s presidential candidates back Sudan sanctions

April 16, 2007 (PARIS) — France’s three leading presidential candidates said on Monday they were all looking at imposing sanctions against Sudan for resisting U.N. demands to allow the deployment of peacekeepers in its Darfur region.

In written replies to questions on foreign policy by Le Monde newspaper, Socialist Segolene Royal, centrist Francois Bayrou and right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy also said they opposed lifting an EU arms embargo on China, and urged European states to consult more on a planned U.S. missile defence shield.

“Sanctions should be immediate,” Bayrou said when asked about further U.N. Security Council measures against Khartoum. He said they should cover petroleum products and that he wanted to freeze the assets of “dignitaries of the regime”.

The United States and Britain have been pushing, with French support, for Security Council sanctions over Sudan’s refusal to accept a large “hybrid” peacekeeping force in Darfur.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, however, has asked them for more time to convince Khartoum to accept the force.

Royal and Sarkozy, who pollsters say are most likely to lead the April 22 first round vote and go head-to-head at a run-off ballot on May 6, said they too would push for sanctions.

“I want France to make proposals at the Security Council, notably on sanctions, if Sudan continues to prevaricate,” Royal told the newspaper.

Sarkozy used similar language, highlighting the relatively consensual nature of French foreign policy compared to other campaign subjects, over which the candidates have traded numerous verbal blows and, at times, insults.

(Reuters)