Blair meets French PM to heal rift over Iraq

Tony Blair is interrupting his holiday today to meet the French Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, in an attempt to heal the rift between Britain and the rest of Europe over war with Iraq.

The unscheduled talks in Le Vernet, the town in southern France where Mr Blair is staying, come amid a widening split on the issue between Britain and her European partners, reports of disagreements between Mr Blair and the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and an "offer" from Saddam Hussein to allow United Nations inspectors to return.

The informal meeting between the two prime ministers comes as an opinion poll shows that three out of four French citizens would oppose the involvement of the country's armed forces in a military attack against Iraq.