European press review

Michael Howard's bid to become leader of Britain's Conservative Party get wide coverage in Friday's European press.

There is comment on the prospect of greater defence cooperation between France and the UK, and the promise of a facelift for France's most famous palace is welcomed.

Howard's way

With a single hat thrown into the ring in the contest to select a new leader for Britain's Conservative Party, the German daily Die Welt says that if Michael Howard gets the job, Prime Minister Tony Blair will have a serious competitor again.

"A heavyweight is returning to the fray," the paper says, "and Blair will soon find that competence has not died out in the camp of its main adversary".

Der Tagesspiegel agrees.

"Watch out, Tony Blair!" it exclaims. "The years of governing without a serious opposition may be coming to an end."

Barring a miracle, the most the Conservative Party can aspire to in the short term is to avoid total meltdown El Pais

The paper doubts whether Michael Howard will be able to lead the Tories to victory in the next general election but believes he has what it takes to drive Tony Blair from what it describes as "the Conservatives' traditional right-of-centre territory".

In Austria Die Presse warns that Mr Howard, with his "reputation as a hardliner", is not somebody who stands for renewal.

It says Mr Howard may be able to get his party "on course", but believes that somebody else will have to lead it to victory which, it says, "is something the Tories cannot even begin to dream about at the moment."

The Spanish El Pais agrees.

"Barring a miracle," the paper says, "the most the party can aspire to in the short term is to avoid total meltdown.

"For the time being, to lose the next general elections with relative dignity seems to be the most optimistic horizon for the Tories."

Also in Spain, La Razon said Mr Howard's pledge to include in his team figures from all wings of the party was "the only remedy for the party's pathological tendency to self-destruct".

"If, as everything seems to indicate, Michael Howard becomes the next Conservative leader," the paper says, "he will have pulled off one of the most unexpected political resurrections anyone can remember".

Defence cordiale?

Earlier this week, President Jacques Chirac's office denied press reports that France planned to change its nuclear defence policy to take account of the threat from so-called rogue states.

Valeurs Actuels quotes Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie as saying "there has been no change" to the principles of nuclear defence outlined by President Chirac in 2001. "We are continuously improving our armament," the minister says, "but the concept remains unchanged".

Ms Alliot-Marie also says a decision will be made before the end of this year on whether France's second aircraft carrier will be nuclear-powered.

Should France opt for a conventionally-powered vessel instead, she adds, "we might consider a cooperative venture with the British".

The Palace of Versailles deserves a good old hammer-and-paintbrush job Liberation

French cooperation with Britain, but in the nuclear sphere, is also suggested by Le Nouvel Observateur, which notes that the "euphoria" that greeted the end of the Cold War has given way "to such a degree of nuclear proliferation that there are grounds for speaking of a domino effect".

Add to this the development of chemical and biological weapons by countries without the means to go nuclear and the threat from states which do not abide by the rules of the nuclear game, it says, and "we arrive at a catalogue of potential threats that causes panic among all strategists".

It warns of "a gradual slippage towards a doctrine advising the use of nuclear weapons, even pre-emptively, against countries which do not possess them".

Should France "follow the evolution of America's strategic doctrine?" the paper wonders, or "should it embark upon equally fundamental choices" in the European context, "and particularly in association with Britain, the EU's other nuclear power?"

More than just a pretty facade

Paris's Liberation welcomes the French culture minister's announcement that the palace of Versailles is to get a 224 million euros overhaul to brighten its facade, improve safety and make it more visitor-friendly.

"That permanent building site" - as it terms Versailles - "deserves a good old hammer-and-paintbrush job to help it regain its brilliance and original spirit", the paper says.

"A more down-to-earth reason", it adds, is that the palace "is the most visited site in Europe, and France has long been the world's top tourist destination."

Versailles, the paper concludes, "is not just a national myth like the Bastille or the Pantheon, but indeed the most precious of all treasures".

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