Guns out?

This just in from Le Figaro:

It seems outspoken Czech President Vaclav Klaus has had a dig at Sarko's hunger for power during a debate in Paris.

Following on from tensions between the two countries over Sarkozy's apparent call to protectionism in a speech last week, Klaus said of Sarko: "I know he'd like to remain a permanent president" of the EU, adding, apparently sarcastically, "It is very human." He also said that to have a good European presidency "It's not necessary to be hyper-active and to organise a European summit every weekend."

The upcoming summit that the Czechs are organising will be very interesting. According to the BBC's Mark Mardell, an insider has said "essentially it's to tell Sarkozy to shut up". And the Independent reports that the Czech PM yesterday referred to the summit as a "shoot-out", saying, "If the result of our shootout is an agreement... that we will not be using this type of media competition and that we will halt protectionism, then this shootout will have served its purpose."

Despite all this Klaus said this morning in Paris that he "didn't see tensions between the two countries", and blamed the Franco-Czech spat on "some politicians and journalists who want to create tensions just for a political game."

Sure.