Britain and France continue sniping at start of summit

Britain and France clashed angrily over Iraq yesterday as Tony Blair prepared to confront Jacques Chirac at a dinner of European Union leaders in Brussels tonight.

As the French lodged a formal protest over the UK campaign to blame the French President for the collapse of diplomatic efforts to disarm Saddam Hussein, the Prime Minister made it clear that he would not back down when the 15 European Union leaders discuss the Iraq crisis at the start of a two-day summit.

Although diplomats hope both leaders will avoid a damaging full-scale fight, the recriminations between London and Paris showed no sign of abating yesterday.

Dominique de Villepin, the French Foreign Minister, telephoned Jack Straw, his British counterpart, to protest about the blame heaped on France during the House of Commons debate on Tuesday that approved military action.

The French are angry that Mr Blair and his ministers have repeatedly quoted M. Chirac as saying he would veto a new UN resolution under any circumstances.

The French Foreign Ministry said: "The French authorities were shocked and saddened by what members of the British government said during the recent debates in the House of Commons.

"We can well understand the internal pressure being exerted on the British government. But the words used were not worthy of a country which is both a friend and a European partner. This presentation of the facts does not give a true picture."

Mr Blair's official spokesman dismissed the protest, issuing a catalogue of comments by France threatening to wield its veto. "We clearly stand by what we said," he said. "If you neuter the threat, you embolden the tyrant."

Although Britain and France accept they will need to rebuild relations in the long term, the long-planned EU summit to discuss economic reform may come too soon.

Mr Blair's spokesman warned that the "fundamental disagreement" between the two countries over Iraq could spill over to other issues such as the EU blueprint being drawn up by a convention chaired by the former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

On the eve of the summit, the European Commission president, Romano Prodi, wrote to the 15 leaders describing the situation as "grim" and calling on the EU to "reforge its unity quickly". While all sides acknowledge the depth of the divisions over war on Iraq, diplomats were desperately seeking common ground ahead of the meeting.

EU member states should be able to unite around a pledge to make humanitarian aid available to deal with the consequences of military action in the Gulf. At present €21m (£14m) has been allocated, although Brussels could dip into a contingency fund of a further €250m.

There may also be a consensus on the need for post-war Iraq to be controlled under a specific mandate from the UN, something that would make eventual EU participation in the rebuilding work more feasible.

With such deep divisions over the merits of a military campaign, Greece, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, will not push the issue of whether to bankroll the reconstruction work. But diplomats have noted some flexibility on the issue from Paris, indicating a possible softening of the French line.

"There are a range of reasons why quite a large number of EU countries will want to be involved, ranging from the humanitarian and moral to the commercial and practical," one senior EU diplomat said.

George Papandreou, the Foreign Minister of Greece, highlighted a political commitment to "strengthen common foreign and security policy" and to "keep and strengthen the UN in the driving seat".

He also identified other priorities including moves "to strengthen the dialogue with Muslim nations" and to have a "very open debate with the United States".

EU leaders are also expected to stress the importance of the Middle East peace process and welcome the publication of a "road map" towards the creation of a Palestinian state.

British officials concede that the fallout over Iraq will have significant implications but hope that it might create a sense of "greater realism" on foreign policy.

But they are also concerned about talk re-emerging from some national capitals of ideas for a hard core of EU states, perhaps based around the founding six member states, and excluding the UK.