The political crisis is playing out against a backdrop of continued sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions since the bombing of a revered Shi'ite shrine in the town of Samarra in February 2006.
Police said gunmen killed seven members of the same family in the town of Latifiya in the notorious "Triangle of Death", a Sunni Arab militant stronghold south of Baghdad. Two police sources said three women and a girl were among the dead, but it was not clear to which religious sect the family belonged.
"Everyone knows the Americans will not be able to get this country out of difficulty alone. And so, I have said it and I will say it again, the more the Iraqis request the intervention of the U.N. the more France will help them," Kouchner told RTL.
France opposed military intervention in Iraq in 2003 on the grounds that U.N. inspectors should be given more time to find weapons of mass destruction, the main reason given by Washington for the invasion. No such weapons have ever been found.
The United Nations Security Council voted earlier this month to give the United Nations an expanded political role in Iraq to promote dialogue between rival factions and dialogue with neighbouring countries.
Maliki is on a three-day visit to Damascus to convince Syria to stop what Baghdad sees as support for rebels fighting his U.S.-backed government. Syria has said it is difficult to police its porous border with Iraq.
Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said Iraq was interested in reactivating a pipeline linking its oil centre of Kirkuk to a Syrian port only if it could be secured.
An Iraqi official said improved economic ties could help convince Damascus to help the Baghdad government improve security.
Syria shares part of its Iraq border with Anbar province, a Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold that has been largely pacified since tribal sheikhs turned against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and entered into an alliance with U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Abu Risha, the leader of one confederation of Sunni Arab tribes opposed to al Qaeda, met Iraq's defence minister, Abdel Qader Jassim, on Tuesday to ask for his help in recruiting his tribesmen into the Iraqi army.
Jassim's office said in a statement the minister had ordered his ministry to facilitate this process.
