Unrepentant Chirac Clashes With Us Again

George Bush and Jacques Chirac yesterday clashed sharply for the second day running at Nato's Istanbul summit, squabbling publicly over Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey's place in Europe.

The French president undermined hopes of burying transatlantic disagreements when he insisted he was "entirely hostile" to any Nato presence in Iraq, which he warned would be "dangerous and counterproductive".

Mr Chirac was unapologetic about his repeated rows with the US. "We are friends and allies but we are not servants," he told reporters before leaving for an EU summit in Brussels.

"When we don't agree we don't say so aggressively, but in a firm manner."

The French president also resisted US pressure to deploy Nato units to boost security in Afghanistan.

Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, warned that opposition to deploying the Nato response force (NRF) could be circumvented by taking a decision in a forum which excludes France.

But Mr Chirac, unhappy about deploying the alliance outside its cold war era European area of operations, made clear he thought the force should not be used to help secure the Afghan elections in September.

"The NRF is not designed for this. It shouldn't be used just for any old matter."

Mr Bush again called on the EU to give Turkey a firm date for starting membership talks - after being told by his French counterpart only the day before to mind his own business on this issue. The US president said that taking the world's most successful Muslim democracy into the EU would encourage other Islamic states to undertake the democratic reforms he hopes Iraq will see as the post-Saddam government takes charge.

"Including Turkey in the EU would prove that Europe is not the exclusive club of a single religion and it would expose the 'clash of civilisations' as a passing myth of history," he said.

EU leaders are to decide at the end of this year whether Turkey meets stringent standards for democracy and human rights that will enable it to start membership talks next year.

Mr Bush admitted that American views on the Middle East had often been harmful.

"When some in my country speak in an ill-informed and in sulting manner about the Muslim faith, their words are heard abroad, and do great harm to our cause," he conceded.

But Muslims also had to take responsibility for cultural tensions. "When some in the Muslim world incite hatred and murder with conspiracy theories and propaganda, their words are also heard by a generation of young Muslims who need truth and hope, not lies and anger."

Mr Bush is under pressure to defend his views on Middle Eastern democracy while facing criticism for a one-sided approach to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

Before leaving Istanbul, Tony Blair said he looked forward to "Turkey taking its rightful place in the EU, if the criteria are met, as I expect they will be".