McCain says US must listen more to European allies on key issues

   PARIS, March 25, 2008  – Republican nominee John McCain said in an
interview published Saturday the United States must show it is listening to
its European allies while also standing firm on issues like the war in
Afghanistan.
   The US presidential candidate, who met France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy
in Paris Friday, told the French daily Le Monde he is grateful to Paris for
its help in Afghanistan even though Washington would have liked this support
to be on a larger scale.
   McCain said he was not in Europe to criticise US allies, but instead hoped
they would lend a hand in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and its economy.
   He said the United States has good relations in particular with France,
Germany and Britain, as well as eastern European states, all of which he said
stand together against Islamic fundamentalism.
   Since Sarkozy was elected last year, he has engaged in a friendlier
relationship with the United States than his predecessor Jacques Chirac, who
strongly opposed the US invasion of Iraq.
   McCain defended the war in the interview, saying that he was absolutely
certain of success and that the problem was not the US presence in Iraq, but
rather the loss of American lives.
   On the subject of Iran, McCain said he holds similar views to Sarkozy and
would like to see stronger economic and diplomatic sanctions than those
currently being enforced by the UN Security Council.

AFP