After suffering a spat with Washington over the war in Iraq, Paris is seeking to make amends by proposing a new transatlantic charter that would define the parameters of European-American relations.
Diplomatically, it’s been a patchy year for French relations with the United States. French President Jacques Chirac tried everything he could to prevent Washington from going to war against Iraq. As thanks for his efforts, the U.S. Congress rechristened french fries as "freedom fries" and thousands boycotted French restaurants across the country, even those that, ironically, were owned by Americans.
Now the French are seeking ways to heal the transatlantic rift – one of the worst in postwar history. At a meeting of French ambassadors on Thursday, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin proposed establishing a new transatlantic charter that would redefine the relationship between Europe and the U.S. in the wake of the Iraq war.
"We are in a new strategic environment and certain fundamental elements of our relationship have changed," de Villepin said. "Our response to threats may differ on points; our conception of the role of the United Nations is not always the same."

Common values

The charter would focus on Europe's and America's common values and "complementary elements to be exploited." At the same time it would seek to "manage the differences" between Europe and the U.S. in de Villepin’s words, establishing framework for new dialogue and identifying areas where cooperation could be improved.
But observers are skeptical the United States will seriously consider de Villepin’s proposal, which he announced as part of his government’s foreign policy goals for the next year.
 "These charters can only work if both parties are ready to compromise. The U.S. is not ready to be constrained in any of its actions by a new diplomatic charter," Guillaume Parmentier of the French Center on the United States told London’s Guardian newspaper.
But with relations at an all-time low, the French have nothing to lose in trying.
"We have a new history to write," de Villepin said. "Perhaps the moment has come to base a new European-American partnership on a transatlantic charter."

Britain's prime minister on Thursday defended his government’s role in the naming of the source behind the BBC’s story accusing Downing Street of “sexing up” its September Iraq weapons dossier.
It would be no exaggeration to call Thursday one of the toughest day in Tony Blair's political career. Called to London's Royal Court of Justice, he became only the second British prime minister in history to appear before a judicial inquiry.
Speaking before the so-called Hutton Inquiry, Tony Blair said he would have resigned if his government’s Iraq dossier had been "sexed up," as an explosive BBC report alleged.
"This was an absolutely fundamental charge," the prime minister said, "This was an allegation that we had behaved in a way which, if true, would have merited my resignation."
Investigators had called on Blair to answer questions in the probe into the suicide death of former government scientist David Kelly. Just days after the Defense Ministry leaked his name to reporters and he was ordered to testify before two parliamentary foreign affairs committees, Kelly’s body was found in the woods near his home, his left wrist slashed.

Public trust plummets

The ensuing scandal has led public trust in Blair to plummet and has pitted 10 Downing Street in a fierce political battle against the British Broadcasting Corporation, the country’s independent public broadcaster. For weeks now Blair has demanded the BBC retract its report.
After alleging in his BBC report that Blair had exaggerated the threat of Iraqi weapons, reporter Andrew Gilligan charged in another newspaper that Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell had personally "sexed up" what was supposed to be an independent intelligence dossier.
But on Thursday, Blair vigorously denied the charge, saying the claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes had come from British intelligence. Throughout its drafting, he said, he knew it "had to be a document that was owned by the Joint Intelligence Committee and its chairman." In the end, he said, "We described the intelligence in a way that was perfectly justified."

"The best case we could have"

Blair also defended the September Iraq weapons dossier – and said his government did the best it could under difficult circumstances.
"The clamor for us to produce evidence was very strong," he said. "We had to disclose what we knew because there was an enormous clamor ... it was important it made the best case we could have."
When Kelly came forward to his boss at the defense ministry and confirmed he had been the source, Blair said he and his aides were in a "quandary" as to what they should next do.
Blair told the inquiry’s chief, Lord Hutton, there was "no way" the government could keep Kelly’s name confidential after he came forward. The government then wrote to the two parliamentary committees and disclosed that Kelly had been the source.
"I was really not sure what the right way to handle this issue was but I knew that we should not be in a situation where we could be accused of misleading the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee," Blair told the inquiry.

Deeply unpleasant

He acknowledged the troubles that posed for Kelly, describing as "deeply unpleasant," his sudden thrust into the media spotlight. "It was one of the reasons why we agreed that the press statement should be agreed with Dr. Kelly, but there was in my view no way of keeping this information private."
In the end, Blair said he was prepared to accept his own responsibility in the scandal: "The responsibility is mine at the end of the day. I take the decision as prime minister, but I wanted to be able to say that we had played by the book."
But that judgement will only come after Lord Hutton and the other members of his inquiry have listened to testimony and sifted through evidence provided by dozens of witnesses from the Blair government and Kelly's work and social circles.

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