Bush And Chirac Reopen Wounds

Roland Watson and Anthony Browne, Times Online:

Twelve hours after sharing an intimate lobster risotto and proclaiming an end to their Iraq war feud, President Bush and Jaques Chirac were yesterday at loggerheads on a range of issues. The pair disagreed on China, Iran, Iraq and the future of Nato, marring efforts by US and European leaders to declare that transatlantic relations had entered a new era of harmony.

As Mr Bush attended consecutive summits with Nato and EU heads of government Brussels police fired water cannon to break up demonstrations against his presence.

In Moscow, President Putin took issue with Mr Bush’s criticism of his drift towards authoritarianism, saying that Russia would develop its own form of democracy without foreign interference.

In Brussels, the clearest disagreement was over the EU’s plans to lift its arms embargo against China. “With regard to China, Europe intends to remove the last obstacles to its relations with this important country,” M. Chirac insisted.

But Mr Bush spoke of his “deep concern” that a transfer of military technology would change the balance of relations between China and Taiwan, a country US troops might one day have to protect.

European leaders believe they can meet American concerns with a strict code of conduct on what could be exported, and allowing officials to check dual use items were not being used in illicit weaponry.

But Mr Bush expressed no enthusiasm for such a system, and said he would not intervene to prevent the US Congress retaliating by blocking US military sales to Europe. ...

On Iran, M.Chirac urged Mr Bush to back European efforts to dissuade Tehran from pursuing nuclear weapons by granting it economic and trade benefits. M Chirac said that Iran should be allowed to buy civil aircraft engines and to join the World Trade Organisation. “I don’t see why that should not be done and I said so to the President of the United States,” he said.

More specifically, Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, said that the EU wanted to sell European Airbuses to Iran.

But Mr Bush is opposed to Britain, France and Germany, the three EU countries negotiating directly with Tehran, offering such incentives. ...

All 26 Nato members pledged contributions to an alliance training mission in Baghdad. The EU and US agreed to hold a joint conference to boost international efforts to rebuild Iraq. “We all agreed to bury the hatchet,” said a senior US Administration official. ...