Jacques Chirac, the French president, yesterday threatened to reopen transatlantic rifts between the EU and the US over the war in Iraq by ignoring Tony Blair's plea for Europeans to "face up to the reality" of George Bush's resounding re-election as American president. Mr Chirac compounded his opposition to appeals for closer cooperation between the US and Europe in Mr Bush's second term by snubbing an EU summit lunch for Ayad Allawi, Iraq's interim prime minister, and urging Europe to act as a counterweight to American hegemony "in a world that's more multi-polar than ever".