French President Jacques Chirac yesterday expressed "very strong wishes" that President Bush will be successful in his visit to Sharm el-Sheikh and Aqaba for talks today on the Middle East peace process.
Mr Chirac later confirmed that Mr Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy representative, was preparing a "road map" for peace between Israel, Syria and Lebanon, comparable to the one proposed for Israel and Palestine.
A Group of Eight Summit declaration on nuclear non-proliferation and weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) "strongly urge(d) North Korea to visibly, verifiably and irreversibly dismantle any nuclear weapons programmes" and said the world leaders "will not ignore the proliferation implications of Iran's advanced nuclear programme".
But the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, insisted the US had no intention of attacking Iran. "Bush made a clear statement that the idea of an armed operation by American forces in Iran is completely without foundation," he said.
Mr Bush departed the summit for Egypt yesterday, leaving the G8 gathering to continue another 24 hours without him.
In his morning appearance with Mr Chirac, Mr Bush said he hoped Europe would work with the US "in the war on terrorism and on questions like proliferation".
But none of three documents issued by the summit on these questions acknowledged Mr Bush's desire for an accord allowing the interception of ships or aircraft suspected of carrying nuclear, chemical or biological cargo.
The fact that the US delegation held not a single briefing and made no official statements at Évian strengthened the impression that Washington attached little importance to Mr Chirac's big meeting.
Meanwhile, Mr Bush's main ally in the war on Iraq, British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair, was yesterday forced to defend himself against accusations by two of his former cabinet ministers that he deliberately deceived the British public in the run-up to the war.
Questions at Mr Blair's press conference focused on the call by Mr Robin Cook, the former leader of the House of Commons, for an independent inquiry into Mr Blair's handling of the Iraq crisis, and allegations by Ms Clare Short, the former international development secretary, that Mr Blair exaggerated the risk represented by Saddam Hussein, misrepresented President Chirac's position, and last September made a secret agreement with President Bush to go to war.
Mr Blair, who had planned to discuss development in Africa at the briefing, said he stood "absolutely 100 per cent behind the evidence, based on intelligence" that Saddam Hussein could have delivered a WMD within 45 minutes.
"The idea that we doctored intelligence reports in order to invent some notion about a 45-minute capability of delivering weapons of mass destruction ... is completely and totally false," he insisted.
But Mr Blair did not say what the evidence of a 45-minute lead-time was. Nor did he address statements by the US Assistant Secretary of Defence, Mr Paul Wolfowitz, that Iraq's alleged WMDs were a "bureaucratic" pretext to enable Washington to overthrow Saddam and free itself of reliance on Saudi Arabia.
The British leader denied plotting with Mr Bush for more than six months before the invasion of Iraq. "The idea, as apparently Clare Short is saying, that I made some secret agreement with George Bush back last September that we would invade Iraq in any event... is also completely and totally untrue."
The US Secretary of Defence, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, has said Saddam perhaps destroyed WMDs, and that evidence may never be found. But Mr Blair insisted it will come to light. "When we accumulate that evidence properly we will give it to people," he said.
"British intelligence services are amongst the best and finest in the world, and the idea that Saddam Hussein has for 12 years been obstructing the UN weapons inspectors ... when all the way along he had actually destroyed these weapons, is completely absurd."
To the disappointment of its host, the entire Évian summit has been dominated by fall-out from the Iraq war.
Mr Bush and President Chirac yesterday appeared before television cameras on the terrace of the Hôtel Royal, with Lake Geneva as a back-drop. " Listen, let's be frank!" Mr Bush said. "We went through a difficult period. There's no question where Jacques Chirac stood, and I made it clear where I stood."
