The escalating row between the US and the EU on one side and Iran on the other, over the latter's decision to resume nuclear fuel research, continues to draw comment.
And attempts by some European leaders to revive the EU constitution remind one German paper of the film The Night of the Living Dead.
Iran v the West
Germany's Frankfurter Rundschau says an escalation in the dispute between the West and Iran over the country's nuclear programme seems inevitable.
Britain's warning that no measures can be ruled out makes it sound as if the problem was a choice between several effective strategies, the paper says.
"But the truth is that the West is rather helpless."
"Iran has crossed the red line set by the Europeans and the Americans"
It does not believe that Britain or the United States are seriously envisaging military action.
But sooner or later the matter may have to be referred to the UN Security Council, a development which could lead to "new threats", the paper adds.
In France, Le Figaro flags up the issue in a front-page article headlined: "Nuclear issue: the West seeks retaliation against Iran".
According to the daily, the US is taking a different approach in dealing with Iran than it did with Iraq.
"Three years after the lone ranger of a Bush administration against Saddam Hussein, the US's behaviour against Iran is completely different: diplomacy, a gradual approach, a search for consensus are the key words in Washington."
Iran has taken the nuclear issue beyond the point of no return, Le Monde, also in Paris, declares.
"Iran... has crossed the red line set by the Europeans and the Americans by turning a deaf ear to the warnings of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council."
"The US is too busy in Iraq and Afghanistan to intervene"
Iran "aims to take advantage of divisions within the international community to press home its advantage and gain time" to pursue its military nuclear programme, the paper believes.
Options against Iran
In Romania, Cotidianul warns "the regime in Tehran is much more dangerous than Saddam Hussein ever was; it has a nuclear programme, medium range missiles and seems an irrational, warrior state."
But the US is "too busy in Iraq and Afghanistan" to intervene, it fears.
In Israel, however, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statements about wiping the country off the map could be used to justify preventive strikes, it says.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has already asked the Israeli army to be ready to strike Iran's secret uranium enrichment sites by the end of March, it says, "if the Security Council option fails".
This would not be the first time Israel has responded with force, the daily explains, noting that in 1981 "they destroyed the Iraqi reactor in Osirak".
"But they must do it quickly before the reactor in Bushehr is operational, otherwise there is a risk of contamination like that of Chernobyl."
Gandul, also in Romania, says the international rejection of Iran's decision to resume nuclear research is not confined to the US and the EU.
"Even Russia, which is helping Iran to build a nuclear installation in Bushehr... has showed the same 'concern'", and has pointed out that the Iranians must meet their international commitments.
And "China hopes the problem will be solved within the IAEA...".
'Zombie' constitution
Under the headline: "Austria's EU plans rebuffed", Vienna's Der Standard notes that, yesterday, the Dutch foreign minister declared the draft EU constitution "dead", only two days after the Austrian chancellor and holder of the EU presidency, Wolfgang Schuessel, said it was "not dead".
"Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot has unambiguously rejected the ambition of the Austrian (EU) Council presidency to reopen the European constitutional debate," it says.
The minister's stance is a result of last year's referendum, in which 63% of the Dutch rejected the proposed constitution, it believes.
"After death, all that is possible is transplantation"
Germany's Der Tagesspiegel has no doubts about the state of the EU's draft constitution.
The suggestion that the EU constitution is not dead reminds the paper of the film The Night of the Living Dead.
"So, the zombies have reached Vienna," it remarks.
The paper acknowledges that it is "understandable" if the Austrian chancellor has set himself the goal of rescuing the constitution, but it insists that he is "in the wrong film" because the document cannot be revived in its current form.
Jacques Chirac's proposal to incorporate different parts of the constitution into existing treaties is more realistic, it argues.
"The French president is right: after death, all that is possible is transplantation."
The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.
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