As I have previously noted, US is winning ugly strategically - This item is from the BBC press review which labels it"France's dilemma:"

Under the headline"Splendid isolation", France's Le Monde says the Iraq issue is confronting President Jacques Chirac with"a highly difficult diplomatic equation".

The president, it says, has to work out a way of"maintaining his opposition to the war without appearing to be shamefully nostalgic for Saddam Hussein".

His dilemma is"how not to oppose the reconstruction of a 'sovereign' Iraq without reneging on his original position".

As a result, at the Nato summit in Istanbul"France found itself isolated in its refusal to accede to America's requests and in its blunt criticism of George W. Bush's public pronouncements."