European Press Review

With the Iraq crisis continuing to dominate Europe's press, some papers are looking at the possible wider ramifications.

There are other concerns apart from Iraq; in Russia, a crisis in municipal services and the flu epidemic exercise the press.

Costs and consciences

The French daily Liberation ponders the economic implications of a war against Iraq, fearing France could be hit hard.

"The French tend to forget that their prosperity depends on a strong exports sector." At present France's main customers are "either in a bad way, like Germany" or "stand to be directly destabilised by a war, as is the case of the Arab countries".

Europe's Christian Democratic parties are torn between transatlantic solidarity and the anti-war stance of the churches

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

There is also the fear America "might carry out trade reprisals" for the French stand on Iraq. "War is never pretty, and economic wars are not pretty either. Unlike the other kind, they do not provide for objections of conscience".

Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung examines the dilemma of Europe's Christian Democratic parties faced with the choice of loyalty to Washington or the Vatican.

"Europe's conservative and Christian Democratic parties are torn between transatlantic solidarity, on the one hand, and the anti-war stance of the churches, to which most of them are close, on the other."

The paper adds that while most German Christian Democratic members of parliament want the government to back the call for solidarity with the United States issued by eight European leaders, there are those who would rather see German policy guided by the Pope.

Bin Laden link doubts

Washington's linkage to Iraq of the latest threats allegedly made by Osama Bin Laden elicits a cynical comment from Russia's heavyweight broadsheet Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

Nobody, not even its closest ally Britain, is following America's reasoning

Der Standard

"After a three-month silence, 'terrorist number one' has once again spoken to the world. Observers note a number of curious coincidences. The unfortunate cassette appeared at the height of the transatlantic arguments over Iraq."

According to Austria's Der Standard, "nobody, not even its closest ally Britain, is following America's reasoning" that Iraq is planning to arm al-Qaeda with weapons of mass destruction.

"It is frivolous to exploit this fear and thus to define the Iraq crisis in populist fashion as a showdown between the Western and Islamic cultures."

Following the alleged Bin Laden broadcast, says France's Le Figaro, US Secretary of State Colin Powell "seized it with both hands" and "brandished it at a Senate committee hearing as proof of Bin Laden's collusion with Iraq".

There is no war we Americans cannot win by ourselves, but there is no nation we can rebuild by ourselves, especially Iraq

International Herald Tribune

Warnings

The Paris-based International Herald Tribune warns Washington against unilateralism. "If war proves inevitable, it must be seen as the product of an international decision, not an American whim."

"There is no war we Americans cannot win by ourselves, but there is no nation we can rebuild by ourselves, especially Iraq."

Sobering words also come from Switzerland's Le Temps. "Rarely has a diplomatic crisis been so sudden and the stakes so high."

At stake, "is nothing less than the fate of the United Nations, of the European Union and of Nato, the three pillars upon which the Western world rests".

When the diplomats' room for manoeuvre shrinks, the hour of disinterested mediators arrives

Berliner Zeitung

Germany's Berliner Zeitung comments on the dispatch of a papal envoy to Baghdad, believing the Pope "has edged ever closer to pacifist positions" since taking office.

"When the diplomats' room for manoeuvre shrinks, the hour of disinterested mediators arrives," the paper writes, adding that the pontiff is "not impartial", having opposed the first Gulf war and repeatedly criticised UN sanctions for harming the population.

Russia's double whammy

A crisis in Russia's municipal services and a flu epidemic are two issues of great concern to the country's press.

If municipal reforms are not dealt with, it will be impossible to achieve social stability

Rossiyskaya Gazeta

The government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta frets that the failure of municipal services "have recently become one, if not the most important obstacle to the normal socio-economic life of the country".

Describing as "urgent" the need to reform and modernise them, it goes on: "If they are not dealt with, it will be impossible to achieve stable growth in the economy and social stability in society."

Nezavisimaya Gazeta quotes Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov as "confessing": "Things are really bad in this area, and practically no reform is taking place."

"In reality, the federal authorities have neither the ability nor the powers to influence the processes under way in municipal services."

The seriousness of the flu epidemic also came up when Mr Kasyanov attended parliament.

Flu epidemic at unprecedented levels

Vecherniy Chelyabinsk

"Yesterday, when Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov at last found time to visit parliament, they were already concerned with another urgent problem - the flu epidemic," reports Komsomolskaya Pravda.

"Aleksey Mitrofanov from the LDPR party proposed the Duma [parliament] should be dispersed for quarantine."

Mr Mitrofanov is quoted as saying, tongue in cheek, "Now we will infect Kasyanov, and he will infect the president."

The Urals regional paper Vecherniy Chelyabinsk says the flu epidemic has reached "levels unprecedented in recent years" and is growing among every population group except schoolchildren, which had benefited from quarantine introduced in urban schools.

Quarantine has also been used in prisons, where garlic and injections had been used and "discipline is very strict. Patients are cured whether they like it or not".

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