European press review

Friday's European papers see Israel thrown into turmoil after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a serious stroke, and the deaths of two Turkish teenagers from bird flu are blamed on poverty and ignorance.

Israeli politics

One face stares out of the front page of several papers - that of Ariel Sharon. Two Italian dailies speak for many - "Ariel Sharon's last battle" is the headline in Il Sole 24 Ore, "Sharon fights for his life" says the Corriere della Sera.

Many commentators believe it unlikely that Mr Sharon will be able to return to political life, and they predict upheaval in Israel with elections looming in March.

"Even though Israel is a functioning democracy and power is divided along well-defined lines," says Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung, "the coming months will be marked by political uncertainty."

The same paper also voices concerns about the future of the Middle East peace process.

It predicts that militants among the Palestinians will see the situation as an opportunity to launch further attacks, "so we cannot expect to see calm conditions in the Palestinian territories - on the contrary," it warns.

"Ariel Sharon between life and death - Israel faces political upheaval", reads a headline in France's Le Monde.

"After being suddenly deprived of its guardian, the Israeli political system will be destabilised for some time to come," the paper believes.

The coming months will be marked by political uncertainty Sueddeutsche Zeitung

Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says Israel's democratic system usually works "smoothly".

"So far that system has helped the country come to grips with any difficult situation which has presented itself," the paper says.

But it adds that it is "much more difficult to assess whether, and how, the 'peace' process... will move forward".

Hungary's Nepszabadsag is less confident about the ability of Israel's political system to cope.

"In crucial situations and moments, Israeli democracy requires a strong prime minister with strong parliamentary support; and I see no sign of this on the horizon," the commentator says.

The paper concludes that "Palestinian independence will get stuck within the 'walls of Gaza' with an ignominious present and perhaps with an ignominious future".

Peace process

France's Le Figaro feels the peace process is "in danger".

The paper says that after the withdrawal from Gaza, Ariel Sharon was planning other "unilateral withdrawals" from the West Bank.

"His disappearance from the political scene risks proving fatal to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process," it warns.

Spain's Avui says the prime minister's absence from the scene comes "at the worst possible time".

The paper warns of "unforeseeable consequences" for the Middle East since Ariel Sharon represents "a ray of hope for all those seeking to put peace with the Palestinians back on the rails".

Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza also strikes a pessimistic note.

Ariel Sharon "will not be coming back to politics", the paper says, "and with his departure the hopes for an end to the conflict with the Palestinians are growing weaker".

The Czech daily Mlada Fronta Dnes is unequivocal.

"Writing Sharon's obituary means writing an obituary of the hope for peace in the Middle East," the paper says.

It feels that the "outgoing old warrior" was the only person who could bring about peace.

But France's Liberation believes Ariel Sharon has prepared the ground for what could become a new peace process.

The paper praises the prime minister as somebody who "has been able to shake off his hawkish past".

It says the Gaza withdrawal was of "historic importance" because it put paid to the idea of a Greater Israel and enabled Israeli society to distance itself from hard-line nationalism.

According to the paper, "this withdrawal has created an opening through which perhaps one day something like a 'peace process' can be relaunched".

Bird flu deaths

Germany's Die Welt says there is no reason to panic after two teenagers died of bird flu in eastern Turkey.

The paper acknowledges that this is the first confirmed outbreak of the disease in humans outside East Asia.

"The threat posed by the bird flu epidemic has finally arrived here," it says.

But it adds that panic is "completely out of place".

The deaths show that "poor and ignorant people need all possible help", the paper says. "If we help them, we protect ourselves, too."

Germany's Die Tageszeitung agrees that the deaths are the result of "poverty and ignorance".

The paper says people are finding it difficult to imagine that their chickens, with which they have "always" lived in close proximity, could represent a lethal danger.

It adds that not everybody is prepared to see their poultry destroyed because the compensation paid does not match the market price.

An editorial in Spain's El Periodico issues a bird flu call to the health authorities and scientists.

The paper calls for "a greater increase in medical and health checks and for research work to be stepped up to produce an effective vaccine rapidly" as well as "clear and truthful" information about the risks of the disease.

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