European press review

Continuing concern over the deaths of former peacekeepers in the Balkans threatens to set Europe at loggerheads with the United States. More such loggerheads seem to be looming on the horizon as Europe is urged to take advantage of an expected slow down in the US economy. And a miracle in the Middle East would come in very handy.

Dying to keep the peace?

An editorial in the leading French daily Le Monde fires a couple of barbs at the US in connection with the deaths of European peacekeepers alleged by some to be linked to the use by Nato of weapons containing depleted uranium.

"These events highlight the somewhat casual treatment of the European allies by the United States general staff, Nato's boss," the paper says. "They were never officially informed that Nato was using depleted uranium in its ammunition."

"Europe has the right to know the dangers to which its soldiers are exposed, and therefore to demand maximum information from the Nato Council, which will be meeting in Brussels on 9 January."

"Nato must not resort to its usual dilatory responses, for they would do nothing to dispel European anxieties bound to revive with each new suspect death," the paper concludes.

Berlin's Die Welt says the leukaemia reports have caused such a stir because of illusions about the reality of war.

It points out that the idea of a clean war is a lie invented by what it calls "the political-military complex".

Politicians have promoted this idea because the public is loath to accept that violence may be necessary to resolve conflicts.

But as far as the paper is concerned, warfare remains what it calls "a bloody trade" that "will always require soldiers to be prepared to risk their health and their lives".

Middle East: a miracle might do the trick

The French L'Express sees Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton as two men harshly treated by the Middle East conflict.

"While the Middle East hesitates between peace and hell, time is running out for two men unjustly treated," the paper says. "We shall long regret the departure of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak if he loses the elections... without concluding a solid and lasting agreement with the Palestinians."

"We shall also miss Bill Clinton and his fierce resolve to strive for peace," the paper adds. "If nothing is achieved in the handful of days left to the outgoing president, the thrice Holy Land of the Middle East will have missed its chance at the turn of the Third Millennium."

"If no 'miracle' happens before 20 January, the will to compromise represented by Barak and Clinton... will give way to a disastrous radicalisation," the paper warns.

Its colleague Le Nouvel Observateur also hopes for an intervention from on high. "Despite Bill Clinton's relentless diplomacy drive, it will take a veritable miracle for Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat to come to an agreement... and meet at the White House before 20 January," the paper says.

It stresses the divide between the two sides.

"It's a psychological chasm first of all," the paper says, "dug by the interminable agony of a moribund peace process and worsened by the clashes that have caused nearly 350 dead, most of them Palestinian."

"But it is also a diplomatic and political chasm," it adds, "laid bare by the radical differences between the two parties on essential issues like Jerusalem, borders, settlements - and the actual mechanism of the negotiations."

Europhoria: it's catching

"The euro is back and europhoria too", says an unusually punning headline in the Belgian Le Soir.

"Europhoria has taken over Europe's stock markets and political leaders," are in a state of europhoria," it puns again. "On Thursday, French Finance Minister Laurent Fabius was in seventh heaven: 'I would not be at all surprised if we reached parity with the dollar quite soon, and even surpass it, he said."

Even from staid Switzerland, not a member of the European Union, comes a clarion call to Europe to topple the United States from its top perch in the world's economy.

"Many indicators suggest that the world's strongest economy is running out of breath," says Geneva's Le Temps. "Even the word 'recession', long absent from the lexicon of the converts to the New Economy, is back in fashion," it notes.

In the light of such events, Europe, as the paper puts it, "has a card to play" and "must not miss its appointment with history".

"The European Union must grab the baton in the race of economic growth... and take up the leading role left vacant by the United States," the paper says.

A somewhat less ambitious French Le Figaro will be quite content if the United States's economic hiccup does not prove contagious.

"The growing prospect of a marked slow-down of the American economy, will give the 12 countries of the euro zone an opportunity to test their defence mechanisms," the paper says. "It is true that the drastic drop in consumption and investment will affect European exports," it concedes, "but the economy of the euro zone depends on foreign trade only to a limited extent."

"Internal demand remains the determining factor of European growth, and on this score things appear to be sound," Le Figaro points out.

A chill wind from Corsica

The Paris-based France Soir fears what it calls "a bad winter wind from Corsica", illustrating its point with a front-page almost totally taken up by an ominous-looking picture of hooded men apparently busy studying a map by the light of a gas lamp, under the headline, "Might Armata Corsa attack?".

This concern follows the underground Corsican nationalist group Armata Corsa's recent claim to have been responsible for two assassinations and eight other attacks.

Yes, replies former nationalist leader Francois Santoni, said to be closely associated with the Corsican organization, to the headline's question mark. In an interview published by the newspaper, he warns that very violent actions could be carried out as early as February on the French mainland.

TVelvet revolution?

Munich's Sueddeutsche Zeitung says the Czechs have shown democratic maturity by protesting against the appointment of a new TV chief accused of political bias.

"The conflict has shown that the Czech Republic has an ample supply of what a democracy needs most: democrats," the paper says.

But it warns that even if the new TV chief resigns the crisis won't be resolved since many citizens are disappointed by the political class and the arrogance of many players.

Germany's Frankfurter Rundschau agrees.

"The dispute over Ceska Televize", it says, "merely crystallizes the deep dissatisfaction of the Czech with their politicians."

The paper points out that the state is being carved up between the party in government and one opposition party.

"Only fresh elections can now restore the Czechs' faith in parliamentary democracy," it concludes.

Between Nato and the Baltic Sea

Poland's Trybuna daily says that Russia's denial of reports in the Washington Times of a transfer of nuclear weapons to Russia's Kaliningrad Region - cut off from Russia and sharing borders with Poland and Lithuania - is a reminder that in a few years' time Kaliningrad could be surrounded by NATO and EU countries.

The paper points out that since 1994 Russian leaders and politicians had been putting forward radical plans for the enclave, ranging from making it a "special defence zone" to exchanging it for German investments and technology.

However such radical statements fell silent since Vladimir Putin took over in the Kremlin, Trybuna notes.

It recalls that at the last year's Paris summit between the European Union and Russia, Putin said he wanted the Kaliningrad enclave to become a testing ground for cooperation between Russia and the Union. But for the time being it is not clear what shape this testing ground is to take, the paper concludes.

The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.