Diplomacy in French saves embarrassment for Nato

English may be today's unsurpassed global language but French remains the language of diplomacy.

Britain and the United States were hastily renamed "Royaume Unis" and "Etats Unis" yesterday to avoid an embarrassing scene at the Nato summit in Prague when the uninvited Ukrainian president gatecrashed the meeting.

Under Nato's standard English-language seating plan, arranged in alphabetical order, Mr Kuchma would have been between the leaders of the United Kingdom and the United States – the two nations that have accused him of selling radar systems to Iraq.

But an eleventh-hour switch to French in a reworked table plan left the surprised Mr Kuchma seated next to the president of Turkey, seven places away from Tony Blair of "Royaume Unis" and 30 seats away from President George Bush of "Etats Unis".

The idea, credited to the alliance's secretary general, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, took diplomats by surprise. Although French is one of the two official languages in the transatlantic alliance, English is very much dominant. "This is the first time I've seen a meeting like this arranged alphabetically in French," said one Nato official.

Ukraine is one of the 46 nations bound together in a loose relationship with Nato under the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and the alliance has sought to draw Ukraine out of Moscow's sphere of influence.

But the limits of tolerance were reached when Washington claimed Mr Kuchma approved the sale of a Kolchuga radar system to Iraq in breach of UN sanctions -- an accusation denied again yesterday by Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Anatoliy Zlenko.

An unapologetic Mr Kuchma also brazened out the snubs to attend a gala dinner in Prague castle on Thursday.