IRAQ CRISIS : The possibility of a confrontation between Washington and continental Europe over the Iraq crisis sharpened yesterday, when the French President Jacques Chirac and the German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder reiterated their opposition to unilateral US action.
"Germany and France have the same judgement on this crisis," Mr Chirac told a press conference marking the 40th anniversary of the Franco-German post-war Elysée Treaty.
Standing beside him, Mr Schröder added: "We agree completely to harmonise our positions as closely as possible to find a peaceful solution."
Mr Chirac did not respond to the question of whether France would use its veto power as a permanent member of the council to quash a resolution on military action. Earlier this week, the French Foreign Minister Mr Dominique de Villepin implicitly threatened to use the veto.
But in an interview on French radio, Mr Alain Juppé, the former prime minister who heads Mr Chirac's political party and is considered the president's chosen heir, strongly criticised Washington and alluded to the veto.
"The United States are not the only country on the surface of the earth," Mr Juppé said.
"One mustn't tag along. You have to defend your vision of the world. Our vision of the world is that no power - not even the United States - has a vocation to go set things right by force, without respecting international law. Judging from the reports of weapons inspectors on the ground, there is no reason to start a military intervention."
Asked whether France would veto a resolution, Mr Juppé said that France "has her prerogatives, and French diplomacy is determined on this point".
Until Tuesday night, Mr Schröder had said only that Germany would not participate in military action - not how it would vote in the Security Council. Yesterday, however, he indicated that Germany would not back any resolution at the council that led to war.
He said he felt that it was still possible to disarm Iraq without war "if there are weapons of mass destruction there" and restated that Germany would not participate in any Iraq war. "Don't expect Germany to approve a resolution legitimising war," he added.
In yesterday's Berliner Zeitung newspaper, he wrote that Germany would co-ordinate its position closely with France.
"In the crises involving terrorism, Iraq and North Korea, our peoples can count on the governments of Germany and France to join forces to preserve peace, avoid war and ensure people's security," wrote Mr Schröder.
It is still not clear whether Germany would vote against a resolution if the US proposed one, or whether it would simply abstain.
By chance, Mr Chirac noted, France holds the presidency of the Security Council this month, and Germany will take over on February 1st.
"Working from this shared position . . . our representatives in the Security Council, under the authority of our two ministers of foreign affairs, are perfectly co-ordinated and in permanent contact," Mr Chirac said, adding that France and Germany were striving for their position "to be well understood" - apparently by the US.
The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, sought to play down European-American differences yesterday, describing them as "a blip".
"Everybody knows the French position and we'll have more conversations with the French," he said.
Mr Chirac said that the Franco-German joint understanding on Iraq was "essentially founded on two ideas".
"The first is that any decision must come from the United Nations Security Council and it alone, expressing itself after hearing the inspectors' report, in conformity with the relevant resolutions it has adopted."
The second reality, Mr Chirac said, "is that for us, war is an admission of failure and it is always the worst of solutions. Everything must be done to avoid it."
French commentators noted that since the Second World War, Germany has never before sided with France against Washington on an important foreign policy issue.