European press review

Europe's papers reflect a deepening gloom after reports that the German economy is heading for recession.

Transatlantic relations continue to be cause for concern in Paris and Berlin.

In Russia, the press scrutinises the president's proposed amnesty in Chechnya and ponders the government's dealings with the Muslim population.

On the brink

"Europe appears on the brink of tumbling back into recession," says an article in the Paris-based International Herald Tribune.

The situation, it says, is exacerbated by strikes in France, "political feuds" in Germany, and protests even in "tranquil" Austria.

All this, it says, will make it hard for European countries to introduce "needed reforms".

News of a recession could provide precious ammunition for the chancellor's critics

Le Monde

A commentary in Berlin's Die Welt is critical of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's plans for economic reform.

The Social Democratic and Green party coalition "seems to have lost control, the country is collapsing," it declares.

Berliner Zeitung believes the situation is worse than during previous recessions when, according to the paper, there were always "people who had plans, who wanted - and were able - to do something" about it. "Where are they today?", it asks.

Bad news

"Country in paralysis", reads the title of a commentary in Munich's Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"New figures from statisticians and tax forecasters are making short shrift of any remaining illusions," the paper says.

"This is bad news for Gerhard Schroeder's government," says France's Le Monde.

Europe's underlying problem is that it is in the process of bungling its expansion eastwards

Le Temps

For several weeks now, it says, German politicians have been "at loggerheads", over the reforms needed "to get the economic machine out of its present blind alley".

"News of a recession," the paper believes, "could provide precious ammunition for the chancellor's critics".

Switzerland's Le Temps believes the underlying problem is that Europe is "in the process of bungling its expansion eastwards".

"All the richer EU members can talk about", it says, "is fear - fear of cheaper labour, fear of cheaper industrial products, fear of cheaper farm produce".

"Their political leaders," it says, "are being held hostage by national lobbies" and "have failed to come up with the kind of major infrastructural projects that would make sense of the (EU's) expansion".

Suspicion

Paris's Le Figaro protests over what it describes as "baseless accusations" levelled at France in the American press.

The paper is indignant over what it sees as a "campaign of denigration against France", which has prompted Paris's ambassador to Washington to send a complaint letter to the White House and Congress.

Bush is cultivating his European friends in order to stand up better to France and Germany

L'Express

Among the allegations denied by Paris, it says, are reports that France has stocks of smallpox virus and that it broke the arms embargo against Iraq.

Plus, the paper says, reports in the US alleged that Paris issued top members of Saddam Hussein's regime with French passports to help them flee the country.

The accusations came from "anonymous sources" in the Bush administration, the paper says, which "raises suspicions of a campaign orchestrated at a high level".

France's L'Express is also wary of America's motives in farming out to Poland one of Iraq's new administrative regions.

Bush, it says, is "cultivating his European friends in order to stand up better to France and Germany".

The German press too worries over transatlantic relations ahead of talks between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and German leaders in Berlin.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung criticises Berlin's handling of relations.

It notes that the country's leaders are striving to improve ties with Washington, but questions the purpose of the "partial resumption of a political relationship" which it says "not so long ago was much better than it is today".

"Goodwill gestures"

Russia's papers weigh up the bill submitted to parliament by President Vladimir Putin offering an amnesty to Chechen rebels.

The Kremlin's chief task is somehow to ensure stability in a society in which Muslims are a significant presence

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

Nezavisimaya Gazeta says the recent suicide bombings in Chechnya, which left over 70 dead, "forced" the authorities to "make concessions" to Russia's Muslim population.

The paper places the proposed amnesty alongside the Supreme Court's decision the same day to allow Tatarstan's Muslim women to wear headscarves on passport photos.

"The Kremlin's chief task is somehow to ensure stability in a society in which Muslims are a significant presence," the paper says.

An article in Moskovskaya Pravda notes that the Russian government faces a tense situation in Chechnya.

Moscow, it says, is "banking more on goodwill gestures".

But an analysis piece in Rossiyskaya Gazeta suggests that criticisms of the amnesty proposal are not being heard.

Any sceptical voices, it says, are being "drowned out in a unanimous chorus of approval".

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