G8

The G8 summit drew some 75,000 anti-globalisation protesters to the French-Swiss border, and the day ended with clashes between police and anarchist and anti-capitalist groups. A British protester, Martin Shaw, 39, from Ealing, west London, suffered multiple fractures when he fell 20 metres into shallow water after a Swiss policeman cut a rope he was suspended from as he unfurled a protest banner from a bridge over the Aubonne river near Lausanne.

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Mr Chirac and Mr Bush and their aides have sent mixed signals recently, with the US president talking about the need to "work together", but also noting anti-French sentiment at home. Briefing the media, Mr Chirac referred to Mr Bush as one of "several other" leaders he had met.

As usual, Mr Blair was caught in the middle. He praised French initiatives on Africa and said that Mr Bush had also showed how he was reaching out - over the Palestinian question, Africa and the UN - and listening.

"The most important thing, particularly after all the differences there have been over Iraq, is that the international community comes together and sends a very clear signal" on weapons of mass destruction and terrorism, he said. [tony, you bore me to death, your language is sickening]

Tension was underlined by remarks by an unidentified senior US official on Mr Bush's aircraft that White House aides complain that France seemed more worried by US power than by Saddam Hussein's.

"The forces out there that want to destabilise, that want to engage in terrorism, build weapons of mass destruction, would like nothing better than to have the western alliance ... in an internecine battle about whose power needs to be checked," the official said.