European press review

Europe's newspapers report and discuss the kidnapping yesterday of two Italian aid workers in Iraq.

However, the events in Russia in the last few days - the school siege in North Ossetia that claimed several hundred lives, and how President Vladimir Putin has responded - continue to dominate editorial columns across the continent.

The abducted Italians

The kidnapping yesterday of two Italian women working for a humanitarian group in Baghdad draws comment in Italy, France and Spain.

The Paris-based International Herald Tribune points out that the aid organisation for which the two Italians work, A Bridge for Baghdad, is a long-standing opponent of Western policy in Iraq and campaigned vigorously against the UN sanctions enforced since the invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

We want to see Simona Torretta and Simona Pari back in Italy safe and sound L'Unita

In Italy, L'Unita regrets that at the time of going to press on Tuesday evening it still had "not heard nor read any words" from the government in Rome "at least conveying encouragement and comfort to the two kidnapped women and their families".

The paper says that it read with concern "inappropriate statements" by Pier Fernando Casini, the speaker of the lower house of the Italian parliament, who said that "you don't negotiate with terrorists".

"Would it not have been better," it asks, "to reassure the public by telling them that, with human lives at stake, Italy will not be second to a France which... has mobilised the entire Arab world in support of its two (kidnapped) journalists?"

"We want to see Simona Torretta and Simona Pari back in Italy safe and sound," the opposition paper says, "and we want to be able to report - and will be happy to do so - that everything has been done... on their behalf."

In Iraq chaos is king El Pais

Spain's El Pais sees the latest abduction as evidence of "the growth of the terrorist strategy being employed by the Iraqi resistance and other foreign armed groups" active in the country.

"The rise in the number of kidnappings often followed by executions is clearly aimed at dealing a blow to public opinion in the (hostages') countries... and by extension to all Europeans".

"These human dramas show that political or geographical distance from Iraq is no guarantee of immunity in a world where such emotionally-charged news is conveyed instantly and with instant impact."

Such kidnappings, the paper argues, "reinforce the feeling that in Iraq chaos is king, and bridge-builders like the two Italian women run the same - or greater - risks as those doing the fighting".

More European criticism of Russia

How Moscow reacted to the school siege in Beslan, North Ossetia and its policy on Chechnya continue to be causes of concern for many European dailies.

In Germany, Die Tageszeitung praises the French prime minister for his comments on Moscow's handling of the crisis, in particular President Vladimir Putin's rejection of both a public inquiry into the events and of the existence of any links between the hostage drama and what the paper calls Russia's "barbaric war" in Chechnya.

"In view of this deplorable state of affairs," the paper says, "it is at least a small ray of hope to see that French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin... has emphatically demanded detailed information from Moscow about the course of the hostage drama".

Vladimir Putin's attitude reveals the pre-democratic state of Russia Berliner Zeitung

The paper concedes that Mr Raffarin's intervention is unlikely to have any effect on Moscow.

"But perhaps it is a first signal to all those in Russia who advocate the provision of information and democratic values."

The Berliner Zeitung notes President Putin's view that any parliamentary investigation could turn into a "political show".

"The worst of it is that Putin may be right - he knows his country without real press freedom and his parliament without any real opposition best."

The paper believes that the president's attitude reveals "the pre-democratic state of Russia".

"Why is Vladimir Putin so vigorously supported by the western capitals?" the French Le Monde wonders, "and why do they refrain, in the name of silent solidarity, from asking simple questions about Russia's policy in the Caucasus?"

Just how far will Western foreign policy follow President Putin? Le Monde

The paper sees three reasons for this: "geopolitical considerations, petrodollars and solidarity against 'the terrorist enemy'".

All three combined, it says, "amount to giving the Kremlin carte blanche to do as it pleases".

And in light of Mr Putin's statements after the Beslan tragedy, the paper notes, it is clear that the Russian president "has closed the door on those who hoped for an opening towards dialogue".

Instead, it points out, "Putin promised 'new methods', the brutality of which one can well imagine".

"Just how far will Western foreign policy follow him?" the paper asks.

A commentary in Paris's Le Nouvel Observateur sees in the behaviour of the Russian army in Chechnya the reason why "the most fanatical Chechen elements have gradually risen in the ranks of the resistance".

"They have climbed," it says, "over the ruins of Grozny, the thousands of dead, the rapes, the torture, and the failure of the moderates whose approaches Putin has always vigorously rejected."

"No longer able to act in their own territory, the advocates of terrorism have decided to carry their desire for bloody vengeance to the whole of Russia."

"Such a terrifying prospect," it says "is beginning to raise doubts over Putin's methods among the Russians themselves."

A new kind of war

Discussing how Russia's special forces dealt with the Beslan siege, a military analyst argues in the Swiss Le Temps that "no western security force would have been able to prevent the massacre" either.

"But we must be mindful of the fact," the writer adds, "that terrorism is in the process of becoming a normal weapon of war, and large gatherings of people will from now on be potential targets."

Israel never - ever! - negotiates with terrorists Moskovskaya Pravda

"The era of well-ordered and rationalized conflicts between states is coming to an end," he warns.

It is being replaced "by an age of unstructured, dispersed and unregulated conflicts... in which the image is stronger than the reality and ideology is heedless of morality".

In Russia itself, a commentary in Moskovskaya Pravda urges the Kremlin to borrow a leaf from Israel's book.

"Why do Palestinian guerrillas in Israel never take hostages?" it asks.

"The answer is obvious: Israel never - ever! - negotiates with terrorists".

Which means, it reasons, "that hostage-taking is rendered pointless".

"If one day we have a doctrine for fighting terrorism," it argues, "it should definitely contain an article defining negotiation with terrorists as a crime... against the state."

There were negotiations going on in Beslan, the paper recalls, and the Russian army was not considering the use of force. "So what came of it?"

It came to pass, comes the answer, "that force was used anyway, but not when it would have been more convenient" for the Russian troops.

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