European press review

In France the row over the secularism bill banning religious symbols from state schools seems to have spread to the cabinet, while in Germany the press assesses President Johannes Rau's opposition to similar bans mooted by federal states.

Both German and Spanish papers consider their countries' role in Iraq.

And a European Court ruling on the confiscation of land in eastern Germany comes under the spotlight.

'Confusion'

Under the headline, Government strikes false note again, France's Le Figaro says that criticism of the secularism bill "attributed" to Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin by unnamed cabinet colleagues has "sown confusion within the government".

Perhaps President Rau's assessment... is more accurate than that of politicians who are bombastically demanding a ban on Islamic headscarves Die Welt

The paper says the critical remarks - "swiftly denied" by the foreign ministry - were made at a government meeting on Wednesday morning.

Fellow ministers who chose to remain anonymous, it says, quoted Mr de Villepin as complaining that such a law "would wrong-foot France's foreign policy" and place Paris "in a very delicate situation in the international arena".

With some German states preparing legislation to ban Islamic headscarves from state schools, Germany's Frankfurter Rundschau praises a speech by President Johannes Rau opposing such a move.

It quotes Mr Rau as saying it is not the state's job to rule on the merits of one religion or another, or to grant one preferential treatment.

The president's words, the paper says, will make him "the subject of much criticism in his remaining weeks in office", but also reflect his stature as "a courageous head of state".

Die Welt, however, has mixed feelings about the president's position.

The paper rejects his "equal treatment of the Islamic headscarf and the crucifix", arguing that the crucifix is well defined as a symbol of redemption and peace while the headscarf can express political as well as religious convictions.

But it adds that the president is right to warn that a headscarf ban may lead to full-blown secularism in Germany.

"Perhaps Rau's assessment... is more accurate than that of politicians who are bombastically demanding a ban," the paper concludes.

Flexible principles

Looking ahead to Chancellor Schroeder's visit to Washington in a few weeks, a commentary in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says the business sector hopes he will come back with the promise of contracts in Iraq.

German industrialists eager for war contracts will be very pleased with their chancellor Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

German companies have so far been excluded because of opposition to the war.

The chancellor, the paper says, "appears to have learned his lesson" and has already offered to send German medical evacuation aircraft to Iraq "as a humanitarian gesture".

This move, it notes, "has re-ignited the debate on German military involvement in war-torn Iraq", but "German industrialists eager for war contracts will be very pleased with their chancellor".

"Perhaps the dwindling ranks of Schroeder supporters in the German electorate will also accept the need for flexible principles," it adds.

Gunfight

A Spanish civil guard officer posted to Iraq as head of security for a Spanish military brigade was killed in the south of the country on Thursday in what the defence ministry in Madrid described as an "anti-terrorist" operation.

What happened sounds much more like a gunfight in the style of the Old West than the kind of mission described by the ministry El Mundo

El Mundo uses a quote from the local Iraqi police chief for its lead headline: "It was an attack by common criminals," it reads, "nothing to do with terrorism".

"Judging by eyewitness reports," the paper says, "what happened sounds much more like a gunfight in the style of the Old West than the kind of mission described by the ministry."

The incident, the paper adds, "once again calls into question the wisdom of having Spanish troops in Iraq".

Barcelona's La Vanguardia says: "It was inevitable that the deployment of Spanish troops in Iraq would result in a corresponding quota of dead and wounded."

This inevitability, the paper adds, must be acknowledged by a government that "justifies such a deployment as just another chapter in the international fight against terrorism".

Whose land?

Several German papers comment on a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights declaring illegal the confiscation without compensation of land in eastern Germany after the country was reunified 14 years ago.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung describes the decision as "acceptable" but warns that it could lead to claims by some 70,000 people who lost land under a law passed in 1992.

The Strasbourg-based court, it observes, "has long had the ability to blast huge holes in the federal budget".

Die Tageszeitung is not sure it will come to that.

The paper predicts that attempts to have the other cases reviewed will flounder, and fails to see why the German state should voluntarily pay compensation.

"A good case can be made on the grounds of fairness," it concedes, "but there is certainly no politically compelling case for compensating heirs who held property rights for no more than two years over a piece of land once received as a gift from the state."

"In a nutshell," the paper concludes, "there are more important issues to worry about."

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