PARIS: Jacques Chirac made clear his ambition for the recently revived Franco-German alliance on Monday, saying it would be the “driving force” for the “refounding of the European project”.

As they prepare to celebrate the 40th anniversary this week of the 1963 Elysee friendship pact, Mr Chirac told interviewers that the two countries should push their relationship even further, to the point where “our two cultures become so close as to achieve a veritable union”.

The anniversary of the treaty signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer coincides with a dramatic revitalisation of their relationship, which has spent the past few years in the doldrums after decades as the powerhouse of European integration.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Mr Chirac are due to chair a joint meeting of their cabinets at the Elysee palace tomorrow morning. In the afternoon the parliaments will sit together for the first time.

“When France and Germany get on, Europe progresses,” Mr Chirac told Le Figaro. “When they don’t get on, Europe comes to a stop.” He made substantially similar comments to the German paper Die Welt.

The two countries had been at odds on a range of issues since the Nice EU summit in December 1998, when Mr Schroeder felt that France was playing unfair games to maintain its influence in the EU in the face of the reunified and far more populous Germany.

But last October the two leaders surprised everyone by reaching agreement on one of the thorniest problems facing the EU as it prepares to take in 10 new states: the future of the common agricultural policy.

Now France and Germany had also reconciled their views on the future of Europe, Mr Chirac said, although he admitted that their “sensibilities” and “deeper aspirations” remained different: Germany favouring a federal approach and France a union of nation states.

“But we have taken an important step towards each other,” he said. “We both realised that if we wanted to progress we had to take account of what the other one was thinking. That is the essential key to solving the problem.”

The first fruit of the accord was their joint proposal last week for an EU dual presidency, which Mr Chirac said would reinforce the “legitimacy, authority and stability” of both the commission and the council of ministers.

This was key to their prime objective: a proper EU constitution. Other aims were to make enlargement a success, create a full security and defence union, and reinforce Europe as a “space of liberty, security and justice for all its citizens”.

He responded to the fear voiced by some members that the axis is once again taking a grip of the EU’s future by denying that it had any “hegemonic desires” for Europe.

“I am convinced that, on the contrary, almost every EU member state will have heaved a sigh of relief when they realised France and Germany were not going to clash.”

He confirmed a number of bilateral measures due to be announced during Wednesday’s celebrations. Each will appoint a “secretary-general for cooperation” and their parliaments “must be more strongly associated” to “harmonise our respective national legislations where they touch the lives of our citizens”.

He insisted that his sometimes stormy personal relations with Mr Schroder were “excellent” and based on “confidence and mutual esteem”.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.