Leaders' rift cause of axe for meetings

To cancel one high-level Franco-German meeting is unfortunate. To cancel two in less than a week implies a bank of freezing fog is descending over the Rhine.

French and German officials sought to play down the significance of the abrupt postponement - both by Paris - of the two meetings.

Privately, and not so privately, the talk in both capitals is of a serious rift in the single most important nati-onal partnership in Europe.

Officials blame an increasingly difficult relationship between President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

With France scheduled to take the presidency of the European Union in July, the Franco-German tiff could not be timed worse.

Berlin has been especially annoyed by Mr Sarkozy's determination to push ahead with a so-called "Club Med" or formal union of countries on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Chancellor Merkel believes that such an organisation would be either a pointless distraction or a threat to the unity of the EU.

There have also been tensions over the management of the euro and on foreign and defence policy.

France has repeatedly criticised the monetary policy of the European Central Bank while ignoring its European commitments to restrain its budget deficit.

Germany has refused to join a French-sponsored EU military mission to Darfur.

At the heart of the quarrel is the strained relationship between the two leaders.

The French and Germans have been running Europe between them to suit themselves for years.

Now the truth is out.

R Knight, Telford & Wrekin UKIP