FRANCE/GERMANY: European critics of President Bush's policy on Iraq were not asked to sign a letter of support for the US position which the leaders of eight European countries - Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Denmark and the Czech Republic - published yesterday.
It has also emerged that the current president of the EU Council, Mr Costas Simitis of Greece, was kept in the dark about the letter. France and Germany, the two leading European critics of US policy, were also not consulted.
The open letter was "a contribution to the debate", the French foreign minister, Mr Dominique de Villepin, said yesterday.
Like the leaders who signed it, he appealed for unity. "Let us not raise one Europe against another, when everyone knows we are defending the same principles: firmness towards Iraq and a solution within the framework of the United Nations," he said. The letter contained "a lot of things that France could have signed, or even written, concerning the disarmament of Iraq," a spokesman for President Jacques Chirac added.
He stressed that the agreement reached by EU foreign ministers to give more time to weapons inspections is still valid.
"Resolution 1441 says that disarmament takes place through inspections. Nothing up to the present justifies changing the means."
Meanwhile, it also emerged yesterday that the Dutch turned down the chance of signing the letter.The Prime Minister, Mr Jan Peter Balkenende, rejected an offer to sign it because Iraq's weapons of mass destruction "represent a clear threat to world security".
"What we are aiming for is one European voice and we are trying to achieve that by bridging gaps and that is why the prime minister did not sign," said Dutch foreign ministry spokesman Mr Bart Jochems.Mr Simitis criticised the eight leaders, saying the move was at odds with the EU's drive for a common position.
"The way in which the initiative on the issue of Iraq was expressed does not contribute to the common approach to the problem," he said in a statement. "The EU aims to have a common foreign policy so on Iraq there is a need for co-ordination," he added.
EU diplomats termed the "Gang of Eight" letter as an attempt to isolate France and Germany, which have warned Washington against a rush to war, and to strengthen the hand of British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, in talks with Mr Bush this weekend.
The Belgian Prime Minister, Mr Guy Verhofstadt, told parliament he had not been informed of the letter but "the Belgian government does not need joint letters to express its solidarity with the international community and the United States".
The Swedish Prime Minister, Mr Goran Persson, said he had not been asked to sign the letter but even if contacted, he would have preferred not to.
Meanwhile, in Germany yesterday, the US ambassador to Germany said that ties between his country and Germany had been harmed .
Addition reporting: Reuters