France poured cold water last night on an American and British proposal to limit the spread of weapons of mass destruction as Tony Blair and George W Bush sought to outflank Jacques Chirac at the opening of the G8 summit.I guess the reconciliation was rather lukewarm.While M Chirac, the host, sought to emphasise his vision of a multipolar world, Mr Blair and Mr Bush joined forces with other members of the Iraq coalition to try to force him to make combating terrorism a central agenda item of the gathering of industrialised nations.
The G8 group of leading industrialised nations has ended its annual summit with a declaration of unity over the future of Iraq.
In a final statement on Tuesday, world leaders said their aim was a "fully sovereign, stable and democratic Iraq".
The G8 - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and US - said they "share the conviction that the time has now come to build peace and to reconstruct Iraq".
