European press review

Papers see no quick end to the ongoing debate about the use of intelligence material by Britain and the United States to justify the war in Iraq. President Jacques Chirac's traditional Bastille Day interview attracts comment, while Germany's papers take stock of their country's foreign policy. And who's counting Russia's multiplying millionaires?

Downing Street doubts

Under the headline "Blair's disgrace", an editorial in Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung says the continuing debate about Iraq represents a problem for the British prime minister which he is unable to shake off.

What if only a few weeks after the rapid capture of Baghdad the summer offered us the spectacle of a global Iraqgate? Le Temps

"Whatever they may have achieved with their bombs and missiles in Iraq," it says, "it is overshadowed by the suspicion, which is being confirmed ever more, that for the sake of the war they grotesquely exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein."

And US suggestions, the paper believes, that British intelligence services are not up to Washington's standards, provide confirmation to Tony Blair's critics the "special relationship" with the United States is not so special after all.

Switzerland's Le Temps suggests that the world hasn't seen the last of the affair.

"What if only a few weeks after the rapid capture of Baghdad the summer offered us the spectacle of a global Iraqgate? After the war in Iraq, will there soon be a confession live on our TV screens?" the paper asks.

It says the British press has been accumulating "gripping" evidence and wonders about the real reasons for war if weapons of mass destruction were a mere pretext to sway public opinion, predicting "fascinating" and "very dangerous" times ahead for the British prime minister and George W Bush.

Bastille Day

Under the front-page headline, "Chirac - reform and dialogue", France's Le Figaro says the French president adopted a rather free-market oriented tone in Monday's traditional Bastille Day interview.

The governments in Washington and London rather than those in Berlin and Paris are today finding it most difficult to justify their actions Berliner Zeitung

"'Movement' and 'dialogue' - these are the two watchwords used yesterday by Jacques Chirac, who clearly announced his intention to carry on with reforms after this spring's social protests," the paper says.

France's Liberation suggests the president talked about domestic issues in the interview only because he had to.

"International issues are the only ones Chirac is still interested in." It believes, for his second mandate, Mr Chirac is setting his sights on a place in history.

A separate editorial in the paper bemoans what it saw as an "interminable interview" from Mr Chirac who made no reference to "social cohesion."

It points to the "suffering" and "distress" of the French under the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin which has much to do with "the feeling that sacrifices are not being shared out fairly and opportunities not being distributed evenly."

German foreign policy

On the eve of German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer's visit to the United States, the Berliner Zeitung reviews the development of German-US relations over the last 12 months and backs the government line on Iraq.

"The governments in Washington and London rather than those in Berlin and Paris are today finding it most difficult to justify their actions," the paper says.

It recalls when Mr Fischer visited Washington last October, he was snubbed by what the paper calls "the main strategists of democratic imperialism in the White House".

But now, the paper suggests, they want to talk to him because they could do with German and French assistance in Iraq.

Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says the fact Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has clashed with Austria, then the United States and now Italy is a sign of a significant foreign policy shift.

"Schroeder has initiated a fundamental change of style in German foreign policy. This chancellor no longer acts like his predecessors."

FAZ suggests while reunification and the end of the Cold War paved the way for this development, the fact the chancellor is a Social Democrat is also a factor.

"The Left called Germany's reasons of state - integration into the West and willing subordination - into question at a time when it was still irresponsible and dangerous."

Russia's money bags

In Russia, Rossiyskaya Gazeta highlights the number of high-earners in the country.

"There are 15 official billionaires in Russia," it says, adding that the real figure could be two or three times more if the shareholders of large concerns like Gazprom, Sberbank and the Unified Energy Systems of Russia were listed.

In addition to the billionaires, there are several hundred people with assets over 100 million dollars and about 10-20,000 worth over $10m, of whom over half are in Moscow. And expert estimates for "ordinary dollar millionaires" range from 300,000 to one million, according to the paper.

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