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GV Bourbon Palace EXTERIOR (2 shots)
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SV Former kampuchean leader Prince Sihanouk arriving
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SV Francois Mitterrand, First Secretary of the Socialist Party, greeting Sihanouk
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LV/SV Photographers taking pictures as Prince Sihanouk talks to reporters (4 shots)
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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Prince Norodom Sihanouk, former Head of State of Cambodia, now Kampuchea, net with the French Socialist Party leader Francois Mitterrand on Friday (7 December) to try to gain further support for a campaign against the present regime in Kampuchea. Prince Sihanouk arrived in France from Peaking two weeks ago (25 November) to rally support for a neutralist force to challenge the kampuchean administration supported by Vietnam.

SYNOPSIS: The deposed kampuchean leader plans to spend at least three months in Europe seeking international support. Prince Sihanouk has already called for an international conference on kampuchea to end the fighting which has raged in his country for over a decade. But in his meeting with the French Socialist Party leader Francois Mitterrand he said that only military pressure would push Vietnam and the Soviet Union to the conference table. The Prince denied, however, that he was seeking to resume leadership of the country.

Prince Sihanouk outlined his programme of action to Mr. Mitterrand. He said his aim was the creation of an independent kampuchea. The Prince is seeking military aid for nationalist guerrillas and expressed regret that the Thai Government would not allow the passage of troops or arms through the country to kampuchea.

Prince Sihanouk is calling on all sympathetic powers to grant military aid to free his country from its Vietnamese occupiers, claiming force is the only language the Vietnamese understand. He will be putting his case to French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing on Thursday (13 December) before meeting other European leaders.