PARIS, Oct 6: A new book examining the antagonistic relationship between presidents Jacques Chirac and George W. Bush claims the United States bugged the French leader's phone to find out his moves in opposition to the Iraq invasion.

American surveillance listened to what happened "in the privacy of the Elysee palace (Chirac's offices), according to several French sources in the military and intelligence fields," according to the book, "Chirac contre Bush: L'Autre Guerre" (Chirac against Bush: The Other War).

Released on Wednesday, the work by French newspaper journalists Henri Vernet and Thomas Cantaloube said that an unidentified former senior French military official found out about the bugging during a Washington lunch with a Bush administration official.

"The relationship between your president and ours is irreparable on the personal level. You have to understand that President Bush knows exactly what President Chirac thinks of him," the US official was reported as saying abruptly.

The book added that the French official, who knew the American very well, understood the message immediately: "That the 'services' were 'listening in on' the private presidential telephone calls" by Chirac.

Eavesdropping on him was made easy because the French leader regularly spoke on unsecure mobile telephones, the book said. The book traces the early stiff yet cordial ties between Chirac and Bush, then brings into focus their gradual fraying.

Chirac contributed to an early chill soon after Bush took office in January 2001 by constantly referring to Bush's father, whom he had got to know well when the latter was US president.

During President Bush's first visit to Europe in June 2001, Chirac even telephoned Bush senior to say "I found your son impressive" after a well-received speech by the new US leader, who has taken pains to differentiate himself by sometimes being known just by his middle initial, W. - or "Dubya".

"W. hates it when he is compared to his father," a source close to the White House who knew both Bushes was quoted as saying in the book. One moment, kept secret at the time, came when a French general, Jean-Patrick Gaviard, went to see US military officials in the Pentagon four months before the Iraq war started in April 2003 to say France could offer "a hundred aircraft, along with a land contingent of around 10,000 men" if Chirac so ordered, the book said.

But that order never came, and instead Chirac threatened to use France's veto in the UN Security Council to scuttle the US moves, prompting Bush to order the war without an express UN mandate.

The "other war" that developed then, separate from the Iraq conflict, was a diplomatic one, "a duel between France and the United States" that was manifested in the French-bashing in the United States and a chill that persists, the authors wrote. -AFP