BBC: French President: situation in Iraq is now more risky

French President Jacques Chirac says he is "not at all sure" the world has become safer with the removal from power of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

In a BBC interview, Chirac suggested the situation in Iraq had helped to prompt an increase in terrorism.

President Chirac also maintained that any intervention in Iraq should have been through the United Nations.

History will tell who is wrong and who is right, Jacques Chirac said. "To a certain extent, Saddam Hussein's departure was a positive thing," Mr. Chirac said when asked if the world was safer now, as US President George W. Bush has repeatedly stated.

"But it also provoked reactions, such as the mobilization in a number of countries, of men and women of Islam, which has made the world more dangerous," he added.

"There's no doubt that there has been an increase in terrorism and one of the origins of that has been the situation in Iraq.

"I'm not at all sure that one can say that the world is safer." When asked if his position on troops in Iraq remained the same, he said: "The way things are now I can't imagine that there will be French troops in Iraq.