UK berates France for insisting on an edited statement

The bitter Anglo-French dispute over war in Iraq deepened last night when the two countries clashed over an EU summit declaration on the international crisis.

Downing Street went on the offensive, attacking France's insistence on removing an important element of the text of a draft communiqué.

Last night's summit was the first face-to-face meeting between Tony Blair and the French President, Jacques Chirac, since the failure of British efforts to gain a second resolution at the UN.

But with France, Germany, Belgium and Finland condemning the war, there was little chance of rapprochement. The atmosphere at the dinner meeting in Brussels was described by diplomats as "niggly" and Downing Street refused even to confirm that Mr Blair had spoken to M. Chirac. "He was in his presence," was all the Prime Minister's official spokesman would say.

At French insistence, the summit deleted a sentence in the text that had argued that "the opportunity offered to Iraq by UN Security Council resolution 1441 was not taken". Mr Blair's official spokesman said: "You are always surprised when people do not want a reference to a unanimous decision of the [Security Council]."

French officials argue that the American rush to war interrupted the inspection system set up by resolution 1441. Given reasonable but not endless time, the inspectors could have disarmed Iraq peacefully.

Paris has been enraged by repeated allegations from the British Government in recent days that M. Chirac had said he would not accept military action against Baghdad "in any circumstances". M. Chirac actually said he would not accept a war resolution in any circumstances while the inspection system was working.

The EU leaders managed only to agree on a text calling for the "full and effective" disarmament of Iraq, and France raised objections to that initially. The declaration also called for the UN to play a central role during and after the crisis.

Before leaving Paris for the Brussels summit, M. Chirac made his opposition to the hostilities clear, saying France "regrets" the action and that, "no matter how long this conflict lasts, it will have serious consequences for the future". Dominique de Villepin, his Foreign Minister, was more explicit, arguing that war would "only worsen the situation in an already fragile region".

And there was little sympathy for Mr Blair from the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, who argued that "the wrong decision has been reached" on war with Iraq and that "thousands of people will have to suffer terribly".

But the Government showed no sign of backing off and published figures showing that the French exported more goods to Iraq than any other EU country. According to its figures, in 2001, French exports to Iraq were worth $591m (£380m), with Germany in third place with $327m and the British in sixth place with $87m. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said 14 of the 25 countries in the "new European Union" supported military action. His remarks echoed the controversial claim by Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, that "old Europe" opposed the war.

Mr Straw said that a "fatally flawed" French policy was to have positioned Europe "in rivalry to the US". Paris had "taken a strategic decision not to implement resolution 1441. As far as we were concerned, that was the mother and father of the problems," he said.

EU officials have been trying to persuade leaders to abandon their feud over the merits of war and to try to concentrate on areas of consensus, particularly the need for a humanitarian push. Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, has called a special meeting today on humanitarian aid. About ¤21m (£14m) in aid is available to be used at short notice and a further emergency fund of ¤270m could be tapped to provide shelter, food and medicine for Iraqis.

But the issue of reconstruction is more sensitive since many countries believe that their taxpayers should not be asked to fund repairs after a war they oppose. The Greek presidency said that a UN resolution was necessary to provide for a post-Saddam Iraq.

Leaders agreed on a more general form of words, calling on the EU "to explore means by which the EU might help the Iraqi people to achieve the objectives of living in freedom, dignity and prosperity under a representative government." Consensus was also reached on moves to reinforce the role of the UN and to retain Iraq's current borders, avoiding a break-up of the country.

George Papandreou, the Foreign Minister of Greece, which holds the EU presidency, told an emergency debate in the European Parliament that the EU's relations with America "are still going through a significant crisis".