President Jacques Chirac and his Foreign Minister, Mr Hubert Vedrine, have expressed their frustration with US foreign policy in speeches to the sixth annual French ambassadors' conference.
Mr Chirac said France refused to accept the "programmed death" of the Middle East peace process, while Mr Vedrine spoke of the US's "strong tendency to meddle in everything", adding that the US "can rarely impose its solutions".
Although Mr Chirac called on all states to "condemn all terrorists without reservation", he indirectly criticised the US for failing to see the Middle East peace process through to fruition.
"To suffocate the hope of a just solution, in line with the commitments made, is to push millions of men into a despair that breeds violence and terrorism," he said.
Six days after the US cruise missile attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan, he also called for a council of defence ministers of the EU and demanded that henceforth any NATO military intervention first receive a mandate from the UN Security Council.
Lists of grievances against Washington were subtly interwoven through the texts proclaiming friendship for the US. France "wants to encourage the irresistible movement towards a multipolar world", Mr Chirac said. By "multipolar" he meant the opposite of that old Gaullist bugbear, "American hegemony".
Among Paris's differences with Washington, he cited US opposition to the creation of an International Court of Justice, its rejection of a treaty banning antipersonnel landmines, stinginess in financing the UN, the IMF and development aid, disregard for protection of the environment and destructive unilateral sanctions and embargoes.
Mr Chirac charitably ascribed these policies to "isolationist and unilateralist" tendencies within the US, adding, "I know how much President Clinton deplores this situation and I salute his resolute international commitment".
Mr Vedrine was more scathing. "Disagreements often come up on the subject of unilateralism," he said. "The US has a hard time participating in real negotiations, especially with their allies. The positions of the present Congress aggravate this tendency in the extreme . . . every day . . . we must deal with a hyper-powerful partner within whose leadership several policies confront and contradict one another, who has a strong tendency to meddle in everything, but can rarely impose its solutions."
With unusual frankness, Mr Chirac and Mr Vedrine also spoke of their concern at France's recent poor relations with Germany. Mr Chirac gave credit to the German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, for helping to bring about EMU. But for the first time, the French leader alluded to difficulties in Franco-German relations which soured at the 1997 Amsterdam summit, when the newly elected left-wing French government demanded a "growth and employment pact" and Germany refused to pursue the institutional reforms so desired by France.
Bitterness also lingers from the battle over the European Central Bank presidency in Brussels last May.
France must now "propose new, more ambitious paths to Germany, to affirm our entente and our co-operation", Mr Chirac said.
"How can we bring about this renewal of Franco-German relations? I have discussed it with the Prime Minister, and as soon as the German election is over, I will raise this important subject with the chancellor."
French Socialists have openly supported Dr Kohl's Social Democrat rival, Mr Gerhard Schroder, and Dr Kohl cannot have been pleased to hear Mr Chirac's ambiguous allusion to Germany after the election.
Mr Vedrine also stressed that "rebuilding Franco-German harmony for the future remains a priority".
Mr Vedrine chided his ambassadors, telling them they must "feel personally accountable for the proper use of . . . public monies that the State puts at your disposition", and pleading for "a more concise style, shorter notes, sobriety and precision" in their telegrams to Paris.
But Mr Chirac praised France's 180 envoys as "the second diplomatic network in the world" and signalled firmly that after the initial doubts raised by his "cohabitation" with the Socialist Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, he is firmly in charge.
"I personally know most of the chiefs-of-mission and I read the telegrams attentively," he said, exhorting them to "get out in the field" to better assess events in their countries.
But if the Socialists have relinquished foreign policy to Mr Chirac, there was plenty of mutual back scratching at the ambassadors' conference. Mr Chirac paid homage to France's new Vedrine doctrine, a sort of a la carte diplomacy of temporary, practical alliances whereby, in Mr Chirac's words, "France must know how to build around her different groupings, changing according to the issues that are dealt with".
To the question "What does France want?" Mr Chirac responded: "First of all, France wants a European Union that is a major actor of the 21st century . . . because a Europe that takes its place on the stage of history is, for France, the best means of preserving her influence and promoting her interests in a globalised world."