European press review

Today's European press reflect a feeling of horrified helplessness at the drama unfolding in Moscow, where a suicide squad of Chechen separatists are holding hundreds hostage in a theatre rigged with explosives.

Elsewhere, the papers comment on the "unexpected deal" between France and Germany.

Devastating blow

"Country held hostage", "War bursts on Moscow", "World war", scream the headlines in Moscow.

Vremya Novostey believes the federal authorities have been dealt "what is perhaps the most devastating blow in the entire history of the 'Chechen problem'".

The guerrillas, the paper points out, have taken the war "not just into Russia but right into the capital, to within a few kilometres of the Kremlin".

Rossiyskaya Gazeta sums up the general mood: "We have witnessed a very serious military, political and economic strike against Russia."

The leading daily Izvestiya says the Russians face a "moment of truth", and with the outcome of the crisis far from certain, many papers are already pointing fingers at the Kremlin.

We have witnessed a very serious military, political and economic strike against Russia.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta

Nezavisimaya Gazeta is critical of the authorities for not responding "much earlier" to the crisis.

It points out that the entire senior administration, including the heads of the security and defence agencies, were "caught by the terrorists on the hop".

"The Chechen fighters," says the tabloid Moskovskiy Komsomolets, "have taken hostage not just hundreds of theatre-goers, but also Putin's political career".

The paper likens the federal authorities to "ostriches in neckties".

Rossiyskaya Gazeta also criticises the "ostrich-like" stance of the Moscow police who dismissed a car bomb attack outside a Moscow branch of McDonald's a few days ago as a gangland dispute.

What now?

Opinions are divided on how to deal with the seemingly intractable Chechnya problem now.

Izvestiya sums up what it sees as the stark choice facing President Putin.

"Does he want to be another General de Gaulle, who gave up Algeria to save France?" it asks. "Or another Stalin, who solved the nationalities question by means of deportation, of the Chechens among others"?

Nezavisimya Gazeta believes negotiations should be given a chance.

"Of all the available options," it notes, "only the idea of a political settlement remains untested."

Moskovskiy Komsomolets agrees, noting the "need to seek agreement with one's enemies" - however "unpleasant" the prospect.

An alarming pattern

Spain's El Pais sees what it calls "an alarming pattern" in "the massive use of terror against innocent civilians in bids to settle or bring into the open the most disparate conflicts or grievances, real or imaginary".

The action in Moscow, it says, "reflects the frustration caused by an unresolved conflict" most of whose victims are "innocent civilians subjected to all manner of atrocities by the troops of a nominally democratic state".

Germany's Die Welt says: "The terrorist take-over of a packed theatre in Moscow shows the extent of the imagination of determined terrorists, and consequently, of what can be expected."

The Czech Pravo believes the hostage operation was designed to have "the greatest possible psychological impact".

Still in Prague, Lidove Noviny says that it is not just the hapless theatre-goers who are being held hostage, but also what it sees as the "just claims" of the Chechens "whose rights the terrorists claim to defend".

EU enlargement

Paris-based International Herald Tribune reports that with just hours to go to the EU summit which opened in Brussels on Thursday evening, France and Germany "announced an unexpected deal... to limit spending on the Union's massive farm programme".

This, the paper recalls, was "a key sticking point in the plans to enlarge the 15-member bloc".

"Farm spending," the paper points out, "will be one of the most costly aspects of expansion, in part because Poland, one of the candidates applying to join the bloc, has more farmers than France and Germany combined."

"Nonetheless, the breakthrough... is crucial," it adds, "because France is the biggest recipient of farm aid and Germany is the biggest net contributor to the budget."

Romania's AZI expects the Brussels summit to "endorse Romania's request for a clear route map capable of guaranteeing the country's entry into the Union in 2007".

Germany pays the most and is afraid that it will have to pay more and France, whose farmers live off German money will not even hear about lowering subsidies

Lidove Noviny

"The Romanians," it says, "are ahead of all other candidate countries in their support for entry into the EU." The latest poll, it adds, "shows that over 77%... would vote for the country's EU membership if a referendum were to be held on this issue".

"About us, without us," is how the Czech Lidove Noviny describes the summit.

"The EU's grandiose enlargement," it notes, "by 10 countries including the Czech Republic... has opened a Pandora's Box: the expensive agricultural subsidies."

"Germany pays the most and is afraid that it will have to pay more and France, whose farmers live off German money will not even hear about lowering subsidies," it adds.

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