Bush Meets With Norwegian Prime Minister

Norway's prime minister emerged from the White House on Friday saying he will ask France to be "flexible" as the U.N. Security Council considers lifting sanctions against Iraq. Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, who had an Oval Office meeting with President Bush, leaves Washington on Sunday night to travel to France, where he will talk with French President Jacques Chirac. U.S. relations with France have been strained since their clashes at the United Nations over the U.S.-led war in Iraq. On Friday, the United States presented to the Security Council a revised resolution to immediately lift sanctions against Iraq but indicated it might agree to suspend them instead, as Russia and France want. The new U.S. draft resolution makes more than two dozen changes to address concerns of council members, but does not significantly change two key concerns of many council members - the limited role of the United Nations in postwar Iraq and the powerful role of the United States and Britain as occupying powers.