European press review

There is great interest in Friday's newspapers in the French foreign minister's call for an urgent change in US policy in Iraq, while in Germany controversy continues over a new Holocaust memorial.

A Russian paper regrets a British court's refusal to extradite a former Chechen official, and Czechs ponder the value of freedom as the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution approaches.

France changes tone on Iraq?

The French foreign minister called on Thursday for a change of approach in Iraq which would give Iraqis themselves responsibility for law and order, and Le Figaro detects "a change of tone" in Paris, in the face of what it calls "growing disquiet at the difficulties facing the coalition troops".

"Far from rejoicing at having been right to oppose the Anglo-American intervention against Saddam Hussein," the paper says, "the French leaders are now fearful of the consequences of a defeat for the West in Iraq."

Washington should stop the childish talk of punishing France Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

The view in Paris, it explains, is that "further destabilization in the Middle East, an encouragement to the Islamist extremists and a recrudescence of international terrorism would be as serious a threat to French interests as to American ones".

"The stalemate in which the US finds itself in Iraq," the paper says, "has encouraged French diplomacy to 'proffer a hand' to the Americans."

The German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung urges America to forget past differences and accept France's offer of cooperation through the United Nations to help stabilize Iraq.

"The transfer of power to Iraqi bodies is the logical political prospect", it says, but those who "came as liberators but are nevertheless occupiers" remain responsible for security in the country.

The paper believes France has realized how much is at stake.

"Since Washington was partly to blame for the row," it suggests, "it should stop the childish talk of punishing France".

Holocaust angst

In Germany, Die Tageszeitung says controversy over the Holocaust memorial being built in Berlin was bound to arise after a ruling that a chemical company with links to Nazi era could continue to act as a supplier.

The memorial will be dirty, not in spite of the protection against graffiti, but because of it Der Tagesspiegel

It recalls that a contract with Degussa for an anti-graffiti product was suspended after it emerged that a former subsidiary of the company had supplied Zyklon B gas to Nazi extermination camps.

"A memorial by the perpetrators for the victims cannot pass off without moral accidents," the paper says, "and if it did, then it would be doubtful whether such a smooth completion was really desirable."

"The memorial will be dirty," says Der Tagesspiegel, "not in spite of the protection against graffiti, but because of it."

But as the paper sees it, this is a good thing because it means that the memorial's very existence will be bound to keep the controversy going, which will help to ensure that the Holocaust will not be forgotten.

London court ruling

A Russian paper takes exception to a London court's refusal yesterday to extradite to Russia the former Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic, Akhmed Zakayev.

"The decision," Nezavisimaya Gazeta says, is a "significant event with far-reaching consequences", because the "court made it clear the West does not trust Russia as much as it would like to."

It says the decision implies that what Russia calls its "counter-terrorist operation" in Chechnya is a war, and that civilians are its victims.

"Russia's justice system received another slap in the face in London," it concludes.

What price freedom?

As the anniversary approaches of the students' demonstration that led to the Velvet Revolution in the then Czechoslovakia, the Czech daily Hospodarske Noviny regrets that today's youth tends to see such events as "ancient history".

Like the creation of Czechoslovakia in October 1918 and the end of World War II, November 1989 is one of "the events which gave the Czech people hope for a better future".

Such hopes are "coming true now", the paper points out.

"We live in an independent, stable and developing country", it adds, and "most of our complaints pale into insignificance compared to the problems faced by most countries".

"Perhaps we hold freedom in such low esteem," the paper suggests, "because we gained it relatively easily". "But that makes it no less valuable", it stresses, and "that is why we must celebrate it".

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