Blair and Chirac attempt to heal Euro rift over Iraq

TONY BLAIR and Jacques Chirac yesterday attempted to paper over the cracks in Europe about war in Iraq by agreeing that the crisis must be resolved through the United Nations.

At the end of a wide-ranging Anglo-French summit in Le Touquet, the two leaders insisted they were united around the twin objectives of disarming Saddam Hussein and doing so through the UN.

But Mr Chirac gave a hint of strong French resistance to military action in the weeks to come by warning that war was “always the worst possible solution”.

He and Mr Blair said they would now await the evidence of purported links between Iraq and al-Qaida which US Secretary of State Colin Powell will present to the UN today and the next report by chief weapons inspector Hans Blix on February 14.

There had been speculation Mr Blair would receive a frosty reception from Mr Chirac after Blair joined forces with Spain and six other European countries to sign a letter backing the US’s hardline stance on Iraq.

Britain has also expressed its irritation at France’s invitation to Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe to a French-African summit later this month.

But Mr Chirac and Mr Blair did their best to give the impression that the entente cordiale, 100-years-old next year, was still intact. Mr Blair said it was symbolic that he and the president had held talks beneath a picture of the marriage between French King Louis XII to Henry VIII’s daughter Mary in the northern seaside resort’s town hall.

At their joint press conference afterwards, however, Mr Chirac acknowledged: “Our approach (on Iraq) is not the same.”

He said Britain and France had “lived side by side” but also “we have fought each other through the years”, and said he remained confident that the two countries could “paper over the differences”.

Mr Blair said: “Of course there are the differences that are familiar to people. But it is important to emphasise again the two common points support for the notion of disarming Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and the belief that this is best pursued through the UN.

“We have the presentation that will be made by Colin Powell. We have then the report of Dr Blix, the chief inspector, on the 14 of February. We will make our judgments then.”

Asked whether a decision on war should be made in weeks or months, Mr Chirac said: “It is not for me to fix their timetable.”