PARIS, April 4 (AFP) - France's former foreign minister Dominique de Villepin has welcomed the release of a mini-CD which sets to pop music his February 2003 speech before the United Nations in which he pleaded for a peaceful resolution to the crisis over Iraq.

In "A better world," musician Arnaud Fleurent-Didier arranges a synthesised accompaniment to Villepin's words beginning: "In this temple of the United Nations we are the guardians of an ideal, we are the guardians of a conscience."

"This original and personal project expresses the feeling that France cannot remain silent in certain circumstances if it is to remain true to itself and the universal principles which it has always defended," Villepin - now interior minister - told the magazine Technikart.

© AFP