European press review

The possibility of war on Iraq and its consequences attract French and British comment, while an anniversary brings Chechnya to the fore in Russia.

Elsewhere, France's Le Figaro reports that Italy may ban cigarettes from television screens.

The war gulf

As speculation mounts about if - or when - the United States will lead an allied war on Iraq, an article in Paris daily Le Monde attempts to take a detached look at where Europe stands.

A deep gulf between Europe and America is in danger of opening up

Le Monde

The paper notes that Europe feels powerless as the US - "electrified by the 11 September attacks" - prepares to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

The paper believes the issue of Iraq will split European countries and in so doing precipitate an even greater, transatlantic division.

"A deep gulf between Europe and America is in danger of opening up," it warns.

London's Daily Telegraph, meanwhile, urges Europe's democracies to "wholeheartedly embrace" the US desire to topple the Iraqi leader.

The paper says that the "implicit assumption" that the present situation in Iraq is better than whatever might follow if Saddam Hussein is brought down offers "very little hope both for the UN and for the Middle East".

The paper declares that the Iraqi leader has "proved himself the staunchest backer of suicide bombers".

It says his removal would not only be a great prize, but would "fire a powerful shot across the bows of all states that sponsor terrorism".

In the Czech Republic, meanwhile, Nato's world role comes under fire, with the Communists calling the military alliance a relic of the Cold War.

Mlada Fronta Dnes gives short shrift to the idea in reporting that 40 leftist parties have been invited to a counter-summit to Nato's meeting in Prague in November.

"It is the Czech communists who are a Cold War relic," a columnist writes.

"To make this even clearer, they have invited the Russian communists."

Challenge for the EU

A commentary in the Hungarian Magyar Nemzet says the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad will be the "test" of the EU's Schengen border system.

The paper predicts that Brussels bureaucracy will not solve the dispute over the enclave, which is in the "unprecedented position" of being cut off from Russia by the EU candidate countries Poland and Lithuania.

Rather, it says bitterly, the final solution will be found at talks between great powers, such as those between the Russian and French presidents last week.

"It will be informative to see the creative ideas raised by European statesmen - otherwise so inflexible with the EU candidates over Schengen - in their effort to build good relations with President Putin", the paper says.

Chechnya flares up

In Russia, meanwhile, a former sticking point with the West - Chechnya - is back in the news.

Vremya Novostey reports on the political fallout from the latest fighting in southern Chechnya.

Unless Russian troops, above all special forces, are used, we will never solve this problem

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov

In three days of fighting in the Kerigo Gorge, on the Chechen side of the border with Georgia, five Russian border guards have been killed and another nine wounded.

Russia blames the upsurge in rebel activity on the infiltration of Chechen fighters based across the border in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge.

According to Vremya Novostey, the Kerigo fighting prompted Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov to "lash out again at Georgia".

"Large gangs of terrorists continue to remain in Georgia," Mr Ivanov is quoted as saying.

"Georgia as a state is incapable of dealing with them and will remain so for the foreseeable future," he adds.

"Unless Russian troops, above all special forces, are used, we will never solve this problem."

The paper also gives the Georgian version of events, from Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze.

"The Chechen section of the border is guarded by both Georgian and Russian border guards, so both sides are responsible for the infiltration", is Mr Shevardnadze's view.

Moskovskiy Komsomolets cites another reason for the rising violence - the 6 August anniversary of the 1996 fall of Groznyy.

In an article captioned "Rebels are coming to take Groznyy again", MK notes Russian military spokesmen are fond of using the "mysterious" phrase, "the rebels have been dispersed".

What this means, in practice, says the paper, is that "the rebels have not been destroyed and after a while they will gather at a predetermined place and start attacking the federal troops again".

Cigarettes and cinema

The Paris daily Le Figaro reports that Italian Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia is planning a total ban on TV images of cigarettes.

The main focus will be old films, since Hollywood has already done the job on recent ones, in which - the paper says - "the heroes and heroines frequently make love, often get drunk and sometimes take drugs but never smoke".

Lovers of cinema are, so to speak, fuming over Mr Sirchia's plans, reports Le Figaro.

"It's hard to imagine Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall with four-leafed clovers between their lips," it muses.

The minister blamed his own early capitulation to the vice on the example set by Bogart himself in the film Casablanca, says Le Figaro.

But he did not reveal whether watching Laurel and Hardy made him regularly throw custard pies at his interlocutors, it adds.

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