"The Russian administration regrets that the Iraqi crisis is being resolved through military means," Kasyanov

BERLIN, March 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As the United States unleashed its hostilities against Iraq Thursday, March 20, morning, the anti-war camp expressed its concern and urged that all measures be taken to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe.

France, the staunchest outspoken opponent of the U.S. war plans, said it hoped that war in Iraq would end "as soon as possible", hours after U.S.-led forces launched an assault on Baghdad.

"At the moment when the first military operations have begun in Iraq, the French authorities note their deep concern," foreign ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau said in a statement carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

France "hopes that the conflict which has just begun can be ended as soon as possible", and that "everything possible will be done to spare the civilian populations further hardship," the statement noted.

Paris, which has spearheaded opposition to U.S. and British plans to wage war on Iraq, "calls on the countries in the region to abstain from any action that would aggravate the situation," Rivasseau said.

The foreign ministry vowed to remain particularly attentive to the security of French nationals abroad, adding it would be carefully monitoring events in Iraq.

Communist party secretary general Marie-George Buffet told France Info radio that the outbreak of war was a violent break with international law and ran contrary to public opinion.

Parties have called for anti-war demonstrators to rally later Thursday near the U.S. embassy in central Paris, which was under tight security.

Germany Calls For Disarmament "Peacefully"

Another opponent of the U.S. aggression against Iraq, Germany voiced hopes that the fighting will end quickly, and that the warring parties will do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties, stressing the need to avoid using weapons of mass destruction.

Germany was ready to help the United Nations and its bodies in any humanitarian relief to ease the suffering of the Iraqi people, the government said in a statement

Germany has been one of the fiercest opponents of a U.S.-led war on Iraq.

A government spokesman said Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was in his Berlin office minutes after the start of U.S. air raids on Iraq overnight.

Schroeder would call a meeting of the government's Security Council and make a televised address later in the day, the spokesman said.

Russia Regrets War Decision

In Russia, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said that Moscow "regrets" the start of the war against Iraq.

"The Russian administration regrets that the Iraqi crisis is being resolved through military means, and without a resolution from the U.N Security Council, the system for ensuring international security," news agencies quoted Kasyanov as saying.

Kasyanov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin would comment on the Iraq war later in the day.

Putin kept his silence on the start of the war, which Moscow had worked hard to prevent through diplomacy, as a host of Russian lawmakers voiced outrage.

The Kremlin said in a terse statement that Putin was being constantly informed of the situation but gave no initial reaction to the first strikes on the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

Russia had struck an alliance with fellow permanent U.N. Security Council members France and China, along with Germany, in a hard-nosed diplomatic drive to block the joint U.S.-British strikes against Iraq, calling for more time for weapons inspectors to make sure that Saddam Hussein was disarming.

Russia had never relented in its firm stance against the war in Iraq, joining forces with France and Germany to urge a political solution of the crisis within the UN framework.

"Irresponsible"

In another development, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev condemned at a press conference after the war started the American action as "irresponsible."

He said Thursday that the U.S.-led war against Iraq was both unjustified and a major political misjudgment by the United States government.

"It will undermine the international security in the world and it will discredit the U.N. Security Council."

"It shows the United States' administration is trying to make the world its own province. It is a big delusion. It certainly has nothing to do with real leadership to which the United States is making claim" added Gorbachev.

He was Soviet president during the first Gulf war in 1991, and an aide revealed Wednesday that the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner had tried unsuccessfully to dissuade Bush's father, then-president George Bush, from launching that war.

"Breach"

Another anti-war voice, China also urged the United States to stop using force against Iraq, saying it violated the United Nations charter and internationals laws.

"We urge relevant countries to stop their military action and return to the right path," said foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan in China's first reaction to the U.S. strikes against Baghdad.

"As long as there is hope we will continue to work hard for peace.

"We strongly appeal to the relevant countries to stop the use of force."

China, one of five permanent U.N. Security Council members, has consistently said it is against war and the issue should be solved within the United Nations framework.

Kong said Washington's decision to use force without U.N. approval was a breach of international law and that most countries favored continued weapons inspections and a peaceful solution to the crisis.