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Were Chirac's remarks clumsy or just candid?

He tries to retract comments on Iran, weapons.

PARIS - Did French President Jacques Chirac misspeak? Is he, at age 74 and in the waning months of his second and likely last term, losing his political touch, even his mental vigor? Or did he simply voice a fear that a nuclear-armed Iran might be a foregone conclusion?

An astounded world asked those questions after the French leader asserted it would not be "very dangerous" if Iran had one or two nuclear weapons, and that its capital, Tehran, would be "razed" if it used them on Israel - assertions that forced Chirac into an embarrassing retraction.

Chirac, who was hospitalized in 2005 for a suspected minor stroke, appeared distracted at times, grasping for names and dates, during an interview Monday, according to the International Herald Tribune, the New York Times and a French magazine, Le Nouvel Observateur.

The newspapers said that his hands shook slightly and that he read from large-print notes when discussing climate change, the interview's planned focus.

Chirac's office switched to damage control afterward. The president called reporters a day after the interview to try to have his quotes retracted. The three publications said the interview was tape-recorded and on the record.

"I should rather have paid attention to what I was saying and understood that perhaps I was on the record," Chirac said in the second interview, according to transcripts.

"I honestly believed that the questions aside from the environment were off the record."

On Monday, Chirac said of Iran and its nuclear program: "I would say that what is dangerous about this situation is not the fact of having a nuclear bomb. Having one or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well, that's not very dangerous."

Instead, Chirac said, the danger lies in the chances of proliferation or an arms race in the Middle East should Iran build a nuclear bomb. Possessing the weapon would be useless for Iran - whose leader has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" - since using it would mean an instant counterattack, he said.

Fast Facts:

Iran moves ahead with nuclear plans

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched anniversary celebrations Thursday for Iran's Islamic Revolution with a defiant promise to push ahead with the country's controversial nuclear program. He suggested Tehran would announce next week that it is installing a new assembly of 3,000 centrifuges in an underground portion of its uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, which the U.S. has warned could bring more sanctions against Iran.

[Last modified February 2, 2007, 01:42:03]