PARIS, March 2: Now that they’ve officially announced their candidacies, France’s two presidential hopefuls, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and incumbent Jacques Chirac, have been battling it out on a number of subjects, but none as surprising as who, of the two, is more pro- or anti-American.

Mr Chirac surprised Afghan provisional president Hamid Karzai on Feb 28 when he retorted to a comment Mr Karzai had made with regard to a purported difference of views over Afghanistan between France and the United States: “I don’t really see where you see a difference,” Mr Chirac admonished Mr Karzai.

“We’re exactly on the same wavelength, we have the same preoccupations, and, at the request of the United States, we acceded to all of their demands and participated in their battle against terrorism, whether it takes place inside or outside Afghanistan.”

Mr Chirac also stressed in his rejoinder to Mr Karzai that “when you look at the skies over Kabul, all you see are American and French military aircraft.” As for Great Britain, which Mr Chirac feels is being given more credit than it is due for its role in the Afghan war, Mr Chirac noted that “our military engagement against Al Qaeda is equal to theirs.”

But, as if to prove Mr Chirac wrong, his foreign minister Hubert Vedrine, who like Prime Minister Lionel Jospin belongs to the French Socialist Party, made it plain in today’s edition of Liberation that he has no regrets about various comments he’s made accusing the United States of espousing a “simplistic” view of the world, especially with regard to George W Bush’s “Axis of Evil”.

In the interview published today, Mr Vedrine goes even further in his criticism of the United States when he claims that Washington has been exhibiting a “unilateral temptation towards ascendancy” in its foreign relations.

He said the US attitude was responsible for what he characterizes as the “real perplexity of Europe faced by an American administration which, in a bit more than a year, has opposed the Kyoto Protocol the (creation of an) International Penal Tribunal, several accords on disarmament, and also used abusively its Security Council veto whenever it concerns the Middle East.”

Mr Vedrine went on to affirm that any perceived anti-Americanism on the part of France was “part of a fundamental debate that is legitimate and healthy,” a debate, he said, “that I hope will convince the United States to make a more responsible use of its power. The battle against terrorism cannot legitimately be used to solve all the problems of the world.”