February 4, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 2,1423

PARIS: The summit meeting between French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday will focus on ironing out differences exacerbated by the Iraq crisis.

The biannual summit in the northern French resort town of Le Toquet had originally been scheduled for December, but was postponed after a highly public flap between Chirac and Blair over the EU’s farm policy. Blair objected to the freeze of farms subsidies agreed by France and Germany in Brussels, and the bilateral proposal increased long- standing British irritation about EU policies delivered as faits accomplis by the self-styled “engines of Europe”.

Disagreement about what to do about Saddam Hussein has only added to the bad blood between Paris and London.

Blair has been President George Bush’s staunchest ally in pushing for a forced regime change in Baghdad, while Chirac has repeatedly said that only the UN Security Council can approve of military action against Iraq. Relations have grown more bitter in the past two weeks. On January 22, Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder presented a common front againts US attempt to stampede its allies into supporting a military strike against Saddam.

“All decisions are to be made by the Security Council, and only by that body, after having heard the report of the arms inspectors,” Chirac declared. “Everything must be done to avoid war.”

One week later, Blair was one of eight European leaders to sign a high-profile letter declaring solidarity with the American anti-Saddam campaign.

Published in several European newspapers, the letter declared that the arms inspectors’ report delivered to the Security Council on January 27 showed that Saddam was continuing in his “long established pattern of deception, denial and non-compliance”. In what was viewed as a direct criticism of France and Germany, the statement said Saddam must not be allowed to open up divisions between Europe and the US.—dpa