Chirac blasts Blair in summit confrontation
By James Blitz in London, Robert Graham in Paris and George Parker in Brussels

Jacques Chirac, the French president, and Tony Blair had a stand-up row at the European Union summit in Brussels, it has emerged, exposing tensions between France and Britain over issues including European farm subsidies and Iraq.

Mr Chirac is understood to have walked up to Mr Blair and launched a direct personal attack in the presence of EU heads of government and officials. "You have been very rude and I have never been spoken to like this before," an enraged Mr Chirac said.

The exchange happened in the closing stages of the summit on Friday as Mr Blair mounted a rearguard action to water down a controversial Franco-German deal on farm subsidies.

Mr Blair is reported to have been shocked by the attack, which followed Mr Chirac's threat to reopen negotiations on Britain's EU rebate.

A British diplomat said: "Chirac thought he could railroad the summit and, when that wasn't the case, he launched this direct and absolutely extraordinary attack on the prime minister."

The encounter came amid the first signs of a resurgence of the close relationship between Paris and Berlin.

Mr Chirac's outburst was prompted by Mr Blair's insistence that the accord could be reopened by any progress in the so-called Doha round of global trade liberalisation talks and that a planned interim review of the Common Agricultural Policy could continue. However, the substance of the deal stands, which means that subsidies will be capped at 2006 levels but will still be some €48bn (£30bn) in 2013.

Some EU officials believe British diplomats are highlighting the confrontation to disguise the fact that Britain failed to halt the substance of the Franco-German deal.

British diplomats say they will watch how France acts over the United Nations security council resolution on Iraq which the US wants to finalise this week. Britain and the US want the toughest possible resolution. France has been an obstacle to its passage.

French officials conceded it was the first summit in four years where France and Germany had worked properly in tandem, a top priority for Mr Chirac. But they played down the Chirac-Blair row over Paris raising the issue of the British rebate. "What happened in Brussels was de bonne guerre [honest warfare]," said a senior official.

"Chirac admires Blair enormously but he had to make the point that, if French farmers are going to make sacrifices after 2006, the cheque paid out to the British since the 1980s has to be reassessed at the same time."