THE GLOVES ARE OFF: Britain is releasing figures on Franco-German trade with Iraq:

As Tony Blair prepared to meet President Jacques Chirac at the European Union summit in Brussels last night, Downing Street drew attention to statistics that detail the value of EU sales to Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The figures show that since 1997, France and Germany have exported goods worth more than £1.7 billion to Iraq, compared to British exports worth £193 million.

Government sources claimed France and Germany interpreted UN sanctions more liberally than Britain.

“More liberally,” eh? Indeed. Meanwhile, Blair and Chirac are not exactly getting along at the EU summit:

The diplomatic war of words between Britain and France over Iraq reached new heights last night as Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac clashed at a European Union dinner in Brussels.

Downing Street made clear its disgust at the French president’s behaviour after he insisted on removing a paragraph from the summit communique expressing regret that Iraq had not responded to UN demands to disarm under resolution 1441.

In a withering reference to the French president, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “One is always surprised when people do not want a reference to the unanimous decision of the UN.”

But Mr Blair put his foot down when M Chirac also tried to remove a reference in the declaration stating that the EU’s aim remained the “full and effective disarmament” of Iraq.

Chirac’s fuming impotence is beginning to look comic, rather than sinister.

UPDATE: Then there’s this:

European leaders today expressed personal condolences to Tony Blair over last night’s helicopter crash in Kuwait – but the French president, Jaques Chirac, was not among them.

And it’s headlined in The Guardian, of all places.

UPDATE: Reader Xavier Basora emails:

You’ll need to correct the last paragraph,. Early this morning I listened to Blair’s press conference on CNN after the meeting and he stated publically that Chirac handwrote a personal letter of condolences to him; the government sents its condolences to the British. I don’t have a link yet but one should be up by this afternoon.

What? The Guardian wrong? Actually, what’s most interesting about the Guardian story isn’t the story, but the strong anti-French slant — which becomes even more interesting if the slant is so strong as to be false. I think this means that Tony Blair’s left flank is well-defended, thanks to growing anti-French sentiment in Britain.