European press review

Tuesday's European papers look at Europe's reaction to Iran's announcement that it will resume uranium conversion.

Elsewhere, while President Vladimir Putin is on the second and final day of his visit to Finland, Russia is seen as "Poland's worst enemy". And German doctors go on a strike over working conditions.

EU 'holding firm'

"Caught unawares by Tehran's announcement, the European Union insists it is 'holding firm'," writes France's Le Monde.

"Following Iran's announcement that it would resume its nuclear activities," the paper continues, "European diplomats are in fact to conduct an urgent round of consultations in order to present a common front on this 'ultra-sensitive' dossier".

It adds that Europe's recourse to the UN Security Council is not to be excluded in the light of what it describes as Tehran's willingness to provoke "a breakdown".

The paper warns that bringing the matter before the Security Council "could come up against a veto from China and Russia".

Tehran wants to break down the Europeans' reserve and push up the price for giving up its nuclear programme Die Welt

"Nevertheless", it says, "two years of negotiations over the Iranian programme will have allowed the Security Council to 'near a consensus' on potential sanctions".

Germany's Die Welt says that "the time has come for the Europeans to think about what they want to do if the 'critical dialogue' were to fail."

It warns that "Tehran wants to break down the Europeans' reserve and push up the price for giving up its nuclear programme."

'Threatening gestures'

The Financial Times Deutschland describes Iran's announcement and Europe's reaction as a case of "threatening gestures" which may not have any serious consequences.

"Tehran is opting for a calculated form of escalation," the paper says, adding that it is "going just as far as it can without causing serious damage to the negotiations".

The paper believes that the real test will come when the EU presents its negotiating package later this week.

Since the Europeans have "extremely limited means to exert pressure", it says, they should be all the more generous in what they offer Iran.

Germany's Die Tageszeitung is rather downbeat.

It believes the EU's "difficult negotiations" with Iran "now have very little chance of success".

It is "almost inconceivable" that Iran's "radical Islamists" will agree to give up uranium enrichment in the long term, the paper notes.

"By asking for too much from the start," it says, "the Europeans missed the chance for a peace policy which could have been an alternative to Washington's intransigent and war-oriented course."

Austria's Der Standard hopes that "Iran continues to be willing to negotiate and that there will not be another stage in the escalation after the enthronement of the new president".

Putin in Finland

Although the two presidents, Vladimir Putin and Tarja Halonen, have known each other for a long time, there are still quite a few awkward, unresolved problems in the Russian-Finnish relations, Russia's Nezavisimaya Gazeta says.

These include the rights of Russians in the Baltic republics, ecological security in the Baltic Sea and the rights of Finno-Ugric peoples living in Russia.

The paper also expects that the two leaders will "do their utmost to avoid a discussion about the territorial claims put forward by the Finnish organisation ProKarelia".

Russia's Gazeta agrees, reminding that Finland will take over the EU presidency in the middle of 2006.

'Poland's worst enemy'

"A gang of Polish nationalists beat up three children of the Russian embassy staff and one of their Kazakh friends - only because they were not Poles," says Russia's Moskovskiy Komsomolets.

"In Poland they see 'Slav brothers' as the principal 'enemy of the nation'," it continues. "Although what is there to be surprised about? There are psychopaths everywhere, and they watch TV, which in Poland is running a non-stop anti-Russian campaign," it adds.

In Poland they see 'Slav brothers' as the principal 'enemy of the nation' Moskovskiy Komsomolets

Russia's Novyye Izvestiya is of the opinion that "there is nothing extraordinary about the attack".

It says that "in several years of actively reading the Polish press" its correspondent "has never once managed to find a piece on Russia that is couched in positive tones".

"So it is natural that the younger generation should be developing a stereotype view of Russia as Poland's worst enemy and a country that is to blame for all of its ills," the paper believes.

German doctors have had enough

Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says it is understandable that thousands of hospital doctors demonstrated over pay and working conditions yesterday.

It points out that the protesters' slogan - "we've had enough, let's go abroad" - is "not an empty threat".

"Even today several thousand doctors turn their back on German hospitals every year because they find much more attractive conditions in other European countries," it says.

Germany's Die Welt notes that junior doctors have to work for up to 50 hours per week.

"This poses a danger not just to their own health but also to that of their patients," the paper warns.

It regrets that doctors are now going on strike to make their grievances known, but it adds that this is "probably inevitable".

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