Chirac heading for UK summit with a difference

Tony Blair's desire to project the brash new Britain knows no bounds - as Jacques Chirac will discover on Friday. This week's Franco- British summit will not be held at fuddy-duddy old Downing Street, or that heritage theme-park of Chequers. No, it's the booming Docklands for the French president, the 38th floor of the 800-ft Canary Wharf tower, no less.

Weather permitting, Mr Chirac will feast his eyes on the matchless beauties of Jubilee Line work, the emerging Millennium Dome, and other features of Britain's biggest building-site. They beat blockade lines of juggernauts any day. Rupert Cornwell