European press review

The USA's missile shield plans versus Russia's alternative defence plans for Europe feature heavily in today's European papers. Also making an appearance are the bombing of Iraq, elections in Spain's Basque Country and a political row in Turkey.

Son of Star Wars worries Moscow...

The Paris-based International Herald Tribune says the Kremlin on Tuesday offered the visiting Nato Secretary-General, Lord George Robertson, an alternative to Washington's controversial anti-missile defence project known by the acronym NMD.

The paper says the Russian system, "intended to address the threat of rogue states often cited by Washington", appears to rely "on developing transportable units that could be moved to counter specific threats during a crisis", in contrast with "the far more elaborate network of defences targeting intercontinental rockets" envisaged by Washington.

Lord Robertson politely accepted the proposals, the paper says, but "left little hope that the Russian manoeuvre would succeed in dividing the Western alliance, despite doubts... about the wisdom of the planned US anti-missile system."

But where Le Temps sees politeness, the Russian papers see tension.

"It was not an easy ride," says the liberal newspaper Segodnya. "The guest's attempts to inject a cheerful note into meetings designed to unfreeze the Russia-Nato partnership ran into a cast-iron refusal by the hosts to accept expansion of the Nato alliance and American plans to create a National Missile Defence system."

"Nobody invited Moscow to join Nato," is the comment in the frequently nationalist Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

"The going is hard," the conservative newspaper Trud agrees. At the same time, the paper stresses that Russia will have "to coexist with Nato and, if possible, negotiate and get on with it, never forgetting about its own national interests".

... while the EU dithers

Germany's Frankfurter Rundschau says Europe is undecided between the US and Russian missile defence proposals because it has failed to develop its own position.

The paper says Washington sees Russia as a second-rate power and will, therefore, have little time for the European missile defence shield.

It adds that the Europeans are torn between transatlantic obedience and cautious resistance to US policies.

"Now they are paying the price," it concludes, "for failing to conduct their own analysis of military threats and to discuss the consequences together."

Berlin's Die Welt disagrees.

It argues that as Germany is coming into the range of an ever increasing number of long-range weapons, developing new ideas for arms control has become what it calls "a German task".

"You have to start at home," the paper says, "in order to arrive in Europe, in the Alliance, in the world."

Heeding French advice on Iraq?

The Swiss Le Temps says the international condemnation of last Friday's US and British air strikes against Iraqi radar installations "has sent George W Bush the message that he can no longer rely on his past allies".

The paper suspects that, as a result, the US and Britain may be in the process of reconsidering their position.

"While the American Administration has so far said nothing, the [British] Foreign Office seems suddenly to have become sensitive to the suffering of the Iraqi people," the paper says.

It quotes the British press as predicting that the economic sanctions directly affecting the population may be dropped, while measures to thwart Saddam Hussein's rearmament efforts will be stepped up.

Human rights hurdle for China's games bid

With Beijing rolling out the red carpet on Tuesday for members of a team inspecting the city's bid to host the 2008 Olympics, the French Le Mondepoints out that the concern for human dignity enshrined in the Olympic Movement's charter "has rarely been among the priorities of the International Olympic Committee, (the IOC)... at least when it comes to selecting host countries".

The paper points out that IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, "admitted as much with amazing cynicism" in Dakar earlier this month, when he said that "human rights should not be an essential criterion" in choosing the host to the 2008 Games.

"China, a great country, is a legitimate candidate," it points out. But acceptance of its bid "amounts to a kind of post-Tiananmen international normalisation... and, therefore, it presupposes the 'normalisation' of China's practices in the area of human rights".

"The Chinese leaders are extremely keen to host the Games," the paper says. "All the more reason for human rights - the concern for human dignity - to be used as an essential criterion... whether Mr Samaranch likes it or not."

"Crucial" elections for the Basques

The announcement of early elections in the troubled Basque region of Spain is the lead story in all the Madrid papers. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) was forced to call the poll after the final collapse of its attempt to find a Northern Ireland-style solution to the conflict - and for the first time ever, it stands a real chance of losing.

Diario 16 says the elections will be "crucial as they could end two decades of PNV governments". In its view, "it is undoubtedly true that after so long in power, the healthiest thing would be a democratic change allowing the constitutionalist parties the chance to develop a new project".

El Mundo says the election is "a great opportunity to promote the change of course needed by Basque society, which does not deserve a government adrift like the one that it has had for the last two years".

For its part, El Pais hopes that nationalists won't use the argument that "if the others get in, there will be more terrorism".

"The battle to defeat ETA must be shared by the government and the opposition regardless of how the electors choose to divide up power", it says.

Turkish corruption fight gets dirty

Austria's Der Standard writes that the fierce row that has flared up between Turkey's Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer will cost the country dearly, both in terms of reputation and economic stability.

It says that the acrimonious dispute is a lot more than just a clash of personalities over how the country should deal with corruption and the role of the state. "What at the onset looked like mere discord between two egomaniacs in actual fact constitutes the central problem of Turkey's politics," the paper says.

It notes that the president, a former judge, is set to fight corruption by all available means, including launching investigations of his own. "This has infuriated government members, who feel that their dedication to this cause has been called into question," it adds.

The paper says that although the president's actions might temporarily undermine the stability of the government, with question marks hanging over the country's reform programme, they are the only way of ensuring that "a stable democracy holds sway in Turkey on a more permanent basis".

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