European press review

The Republican Party convention in Philadelphia and Israel's continuing government crisis feature prominently in many of Europe's major dailies.

Elsewhere, the tenth anniversary of Iraq's unsuccessful invasion of Kuwait, talks on the future of the divided island of Cyprus and transatlantic competition in the aviation industry are all discussed.

Finally, two Spanish dailies slightly jump the gun on whether or not General Pinochet is to lose his immunity from prosecution.

Republican convention

France's Le Monde looks at the US presidential race and suggests that the Republicans' "elephant" is borrowing the clothes and mannerisms of the Democrats' "donkey".

"Is this the Republicans' or the Democrats' convention?" the paper asks. It says the question "could justifiably have been asked by an absent-minded viewer" watching TV coverage from Philadelphia.

Those watching would have seen "immigrant single mothers, black officials and singers of Negro spirituals following one another" on the rostrum.

"Their bafflement would no doubt reach new heights on hearing the party's spin doctors mention the homosexuality of the vice-presidential candidate's daughter as a campaign asset," the paper says.

It adds that the left wing of the Democratic Party would have been happy to endorse Monday's opening speech by General Colin Powell which sounded a clarion call for racial equality and against poverty.

But Switzerland's Le Temps warns against the Republicans' seemingly softer image. "If the American voters are seduced by such largely semantic operations," the paper says in an editorial, "they will wake up with a president and a party who support capital punishment, oppose abortion, and take a hard line on social issues."

Moreover, it points out, the Republican Party is "the natural mouthpiece for the United States's new strategic policy". With a Bush victory, the proposed anti-missile defence programme "will advance in great strides".

"This would sound the death knell for the ABM treaty, one of disarmament's main documents," the paper adds. The world would then become "divided along new lines, with an invulnerable camp made-up essentially of the United States and its followers confronting everybody else".

"Might as well point it out before it happens," the paper concludes.

Israel in crisis

Munich's Sueddeutsche Zeitung says strong differences of opinion are a deeply embedded trait among Israelis, but points out that the country has weathered numerous crises, despite so much internal disagreement.

"Israel exists in a state of permanent existential crisis," the paper says. "It has no time to pause and think where the journey is actually supposed to lead."

The paper also believes Shimon Peres' failure to win the Israeli presidency - a largely ceremonial post - might turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Mr Peres, whom the paper describes as a respected statesman and supporter of reconciliation, could, it says, "have easily stolen Mr Barak's show and caused too much interference".

Le Temps suggests that the charge of interference is one that could be levelled at the man who beat Mr Peres to the presidency, Moshe Katsav.

It notes that as soon as he was elected, Mr Katsav weighed straight into the political rough and tumble with a call for Jerusalem to remain "the unified and eternal capital of Israel".

This had "caused Ehud Barak's advisers to grind their teeth", the paper says.

"In the circumstances this could be seen as a barely-veiled criticism of the concessions made by Ehud Barak at the Camp David talks."

Barcelona's El Periodico nails its colours to the editorial mast under the headline, "Israel in disarray".

It says that Shimon Peres's defeat "confirms the state of disorientation and disarray" reigning in the country.

"The idea of land for peace, advocated by Peres and promised by the United States to the international community... now finds itself confronted with the insidious reality of obsessive militarization, myths of exclusion, and the fiction of a non-viable and subservient Palestinian state.

"Israel is sheltering under the American umbrella, while the Palestinians are doomed to frustration," it says.

Iraq: Not a happy anniversary

On the tenth anniversary of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Hamburg's Die Welt says both countries still bear the scars.

"Neither Kuwait, the victim, nor Iraq, have found their rhythm again, let alone their economic stability and security," it says.

But along with the Kuwaitis, it says, the Iraqi people are also amongst the losers, as they continue to suffer under the twin burdens of Saddam Hussein's regime and international sanctions.

"The Iraqi people will only be free when they rid themselves of their ruler," the paper says. "Until then, the bombs and sanctions continue to hit the wrong people."

Cyprus: It's good to talk

There is also an interesting correspondence on the subject of the divided island of Cyprus going on in the columns of Italy's La Stampa between the Greek and Turkish foreign ministers.

In today's issue, Turkey's Ismail Cem responds to an article by his Greek opposite number George Papandreou.

Mr Cem says that the improved relations between Turkey and Greece, and the European Union's decision to accept his country as a candidate for membership "have paved the way for major geo-strategic changes".

Thanks to Europe's official recognition of Istanbul as a forthcoming new member of the family, "symbolically and in fact, Greece and Turkey no longer stand as potential enemies on opposite sides of an international demarcation line", he argues.

All that is now needed is for the two countries to submit the Cyprus issue to the verdict of international law, Mr Cem concludes.

Air contest

The Paris-based International Herald Tribune says that last week's Concorde tragedy "cast a dark shadow over the Farnborough air show" in the UK.

It says, however, that events did not obscure evidence of "aeronautical competition between the United States and Western Europe which feeds a growing transatlantic political competition".

The paper points out that European companies which only a year ago "were regarded as potential American take-overs" have merged to form "major players" in the international arena.

"The European mergers now threaten the markets of American companies, and European governments are buying European aircraft and weapons rather than going to America for them," it says.

"Nato expansion and modernization were supposed by Washington to keep American companies prosperous, but that hasn't worked."

Chile: Did they or didn't they?

But for the fact that the Chilean Supreme Court has postponed to next week the announcement of its decision on whether or not to lift General Augusto Pinochet's immunity from prosecution, this press review would have been led by two front page headlines in two major Spanish dailies.

"Chilean justice strips Pinochet of his immunity," says Barcelona's La Vanguardia. "Chilean Supreme Court Lifts Pinochet's immunity," reiterates Madrid's El Pais.

The latter quotes unnamed "judicial sources" in Santiago as saying that the 20 judges "voted by a close margin of 11 to nine" to lift Pinochet's immunity so that he may answer the charges of human rights abuses brought against him in a number of lawsuits.

"The court will only announce its decision officially after it has been drafted, signed and conveyed to the parties concerned," the paper says.

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