PARIS, Feb 16: French diplomats in charge of France’s relations with the United States can’t get over it. It’s the first time such a thing has happened in the recent past, and they’re trying to determine - at special meetings called this weekend at the Quai d’Orsay - why it happened at all.

Yesterday, not only was French Ambassador to the US Francois Bujon de l’Estang convoked unexpectedly to the State Department to discuss recent positions taken by Paris on US foreign policy, also - and this is where the French think that Washington went too far - the State Department dared make the convocation of Mr Bujon de l’Estang public - in the same way that it makes public its convocations of representatives of the smaller and less important countries, notably those regularly included in its list of “rogue states,” indeed those who are presently considered part of its “axis of evil,” France’s reaction to the matter being apparently at the centre of the controversy.

Never in the recent memory of French diplomats has France, historically the oldest ally of the United States for having been the first country to come to its side when it fought its revolutionary war in 1778, been treated in such a fashion. Says one diplomat familiar with the incident: “Washington’s gesture is unusual, unfriendly and unexpected.”

For the moment, Paris has decided to mute its reaction, indeed Ambassador Bujon de l’Estang has been asked to play down the matter, saying that as far as he was concerned, the visit with the State Department’s Elizabeth Jones, in charge of Europe and Central Asia, was simply a “working visit.” Especially as Mrs Jones is expected shortly in Paris where she is to have high-level meetings at the Elysee Palace, Hotel Matignon (Prime Minister’s residence) and Quai d’Orsay (the Foreign Affairs Ministry).

Sources at the Quai d’Orsay, however, say that they’ve learned independently that US Secretary of State Colin Powell, already quite upset with the European Union’s often sarcastic comments on President George W. Bush’s January 29 “Axis of Evil” speech, is “particularly irked” with French comments on the matter, notably a recent remark by French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine according to which Mr Bush’s thinking in the matter was “over-simplistic.”

There are also political considerations that have apparently played a role in Washington’s action and France’s reaction. French Socialists would like nothing better than to provoke a conflict with Washington, as Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who is to announce shortly his candidacy as a Socialist for Presidential elections to be held on April 21 and May 5, has been chided recently by the leftwing of his party for having been insufficiently docile with regard to America, a criticism that has resulted in a recent spate of speeches in which Mr Jospin takes on an increasingly anti-American stance.

As for Washington, which considers it in its interest to maintain President Chirac in power, as Mr Chirac has not hidden his support, qualified as it may be, for President Bush - although in recent weeks the support has been less spontaneous and forceful - Washington would certainly not mind - in the eyes of one diplomat - ridiculizing a French foreign policy apparatus presently under the control of Mr Vedrine, a staunch political ally of Mr Jospin, who has himself in recent weeks been heard to make increasingly disparaging remarks about Mr Bush and his “Axis of evil.”

Then too, Washington, in undertaking such undiplomatic behaviour, specially towards an historically close ally, could very well be thinking in terms of its long-term relations not only with France, but also the European Union, indeed it is not any secret that Washington has had its word to say about the creation of a new British-Italian-Spanish axis that would like for the European Union to espouse a more economically liberal more pro-American point of view, in the face of a Franco-German axis which until now has not hidden its support for greater governmental intervention in economic affairs and not been afraid to let Washington know, as recently in the words of German foreign minister Joschka Fischer, who noted that “we may be allies but they (the US) shouldn’t expect for us to become their satellites.”