European press review

A mixed bag in today's European papers, which cover everything from the latest ETA outrage in Spain to corruption in Hungary via global warming.

ETA sows more "terror" in Madrid

The Spanish newspapers are dominated by the latest ETA car bomb attack in Madrid which killed a police officer as he tried to evacuate local residents in the southwest of the city.

El Pais says that coming after a series of recent strikes in the capital, the latest attack by the Basque separatist organization "confirms the worst hypothesis... it seems obvious that ETA has a stable infrastructure in Madrid".

Urging the security forces to make splitting up this unit their top priority, the daily stresses that "effective policing is the only response when the terrorist organization wants a society disgusted by so much crime to give up."

The paper thinks the murder was ETA's way of "greeting" today's investiture session in the Basque parliament, which will elect Juan Jose Ibarretxe the new regional premier. It urges him to use the occasion to make a "firm commitment" to boost collaboration between the various police forces "in order to prevent ETA continuing to sow terror".

"Fudge and flabby compromise" as world burns

London's THE Independent says that the omens for next week's conference in Bonn on rescuing the Kyoto protocol are "to put it mildly, not good". It warns its readers that "fudge and flabby compromise beckon, only cementing the impression that our leaders continue to fiddle as the planet climatically burns".

With Japan and Australia now backtracking and bleak prospects of getting the largest developing countries to accept Kyoto's gas emission targets, the chances of securing enough signatures to make the treaty effective "look slimmer by the day", according to the daily.

The paper urges the EU "to hold firm and make clear in Bonn that, come what may, it will ratify the agreement - not with the aim of picking another fight with the Americans, nor with trumpet blasts of self-righteousness, but simply to make sure that what impetus remains towards a global deal on climate change is not lost".

US small arms policy under fire

Not content with obstructing international environmental policy, "the Americans are now putting up resistance to small arms limits", the Swiss Le Temps says.

"After having given up the Kyoto protocol and the treaty on antiballistic missiles for its antimissile shield project, the USA is once again distinguishing itself - this time with regard to small arms," it writes.

The paper says the UN conference in New York on these sorts of weapons is off to "a bad start".

"The USA stressed, as early as the opening of the forum, that it would strongly oppose any attempt to regulate the possession and trading of guns, pistols, rifles and machine guns" on the grounds that - to quote the US undersecretary of state for arms control - the "US constitution guarantees the right of American citizens to bear such arms".

"Gun battles at school and in other public places do not prevent the USA from advocating the right to guns and rifles", the paper comments.

Jewish massacre apology falls on deaf ears

Poland's Rzeczpospolita highlights the limitations of the apology President Aleksander Kwasniewski made on Tuesday for the murder of Jews in Jedwabne 60 years ago.

It says that, "contrary to announcements, he did not do so on behalf of all the Poles". "I apologize on my own behalf and on behalf of those Poles whose conscience is moved by this crime," the paper quotes Kwasniewski as saying in the town square.

It says that many in the audience "were moved by the ceremony" but notes that the event was attended by "only a handful of residents of Jedwabne, with many watching the gathering from a distance and from behind closed windows".

Gazeta Wyborcza also picks up on the low turnout, saying that during the speeches, the town square appeared "astonishingly large, especially as, apart from several hundred guests and journalists, there weren't too many participants in the ceremonies".

Gazeta interviewed one of the few locals who came to the square in Jedwabne. It quotes 13-year-old Aneta as saying: "Yes, there are few of us here. My mum was here but she couldn't see anything, so she's gone home. But I came here because I am interested. Everyone says something different, so I want to know what really happened."

Hungarian PM could go the way of Chirac

Budapest's Magyar Hirlap compares French and Hungarian reactions to corruption allegations against government members and concludes that the country's prime minister, Viktor Orban, could slip up on the corruption banana skin before the forthcoming elections, just like President Chirac of France.

The paper says Chirac is being constantly humiliated by French journalists asking him about the "source of the cash with which he used to pay for his family's luxury trips". In contrast, the daily says, the Hungarian premier "was taken aback" when a "quarrelsome" TV journalist dared to quiz him a few days ago about his alleged responsibility for a number of fraud cases in the farm ministry, including the use of vast amounts of public money for expensive travel.

"In a democracy, the electorate has the right to know where public money comes from and where it goes," the paper says. And, turning Orban's own words back on him, it adds: "Nobody - not even, as the example shows, the president of France - can claim that he only has a moral not a political responsibility" for the corrupt practices of his officials.

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