Chirac blasts EU candidates

French President Jacques Chirac launched an unprecedented attack on the east European candidates for EU membership that signed two public letters of support for the American stance on Iraq.

At the end of an emergency summit in Brussels, Mr Chirac called their behaviour "childish" and warned it could have an impact on their hopes of joining the EU.

LATEST LETTER SUPPORTING US

France was already concerned that the former communist countries would become America's Trojan horse within the EU and Nato - but the two letters have clearly stung President Chirac to the quick.

In an extraordinary outburst, he described the behaviour of the candidate countries as "dangerous".

Joining the EU takes some consideration and consultation, he said, and these countries were reckless and not very well-behaved.

"They missed a great opportunity to shut up," he chided the candidates, and their pro-American stance could feed public hostility to EU expansion.

Chilly reception

Eight former communist countries are set to join the EU next year, but Mr Chirac was particularly critical of the poorest applicants, Romania and Bulgaria, which will have to wait until 2007.

JANUARY'S OPEN LETTER OF SUPPORT

Their position is already very delicate, he said, and if they wanted to diminish their chances of joining the EU they could not have chosen a better way.

So the leaders of the applicant countries will get a chilly reception when they come to Brussels on Tuesday to be briefed on the summit results - even if Mr Chirac has already gone home.

Last week France rejected a British request for the candidates to join the talks on Iraq.

Even though it is unlikely that expansion can be stopped by the depth of French feeling, this first incident has shown that alliances will be much more unpredictable and fraught in a Union of 25 and more countries.