PRESIDENT CHIRAC of France will hold talks with Tony Blair today after declaring last night that the Iraq war had made the world more dangerous.

Ousting Saddam Hussein had mobilised Islamic people worldwide and sparked a rise in terrorism, the French leader said as he prepared to meet the Queen and Mr Blair during a visit to mark the centenary of the Entente Cordiale.

Mr Blair and M Chirac will inevitably face questions over Iraq at a press conference at Lancaster House today, but Downing Street said that there was no reason why known differences should obstruct agreement on other issues.

M Chirac has said that Mr Blair had won nothing from President Bush for supporting the war. But last night M Chirac insisted the relationship between France and Britain remained good, and said that disagreement over the war did not mean a breakdown in France’s relationship with the US.

M Chirac said he was “not at all sure” that people could claim that the world was a safer place with Saddam no longer in power, as President Bush has insisted, although he said it was important to have put an end to Saddam’s tyranny.

He said the world was more dangerous because of the way it was done. “To a certain extent Saddam Hussein’s departure was a positive thing, but it also provoked reactions, such as the mobilisation in a number of countries of men and women of Islam which has made the world more dangerous.”

In an interview with BBC Two’s Newsnight programme M Chirac said: “There is no doubt that there has been an increase in terrorism and one of the origins of that has been the situation in Iraq. I am not at all sure that one can say the world is safer.”

M Chirac said his view that the war would be “long, difficult and hazardous” was unchanged but that France would help to rebuild the country.

“We will be there for her reconstruction of course, to help with the police and military resources which a state will need,” he said.

But he added that he could not imagine sending French troops to Iraq.

France and the US had shared 200 years of friendship and co-operation, M Chirac went on. That had not changed and they still worked together in several areas including the fight against terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

“Don’t let’s confuse a stable and continuing friendship, understanding and mutual respect, allied to a transatlantic link, with a differing stance on Iraq and where we can’t draw a similar analogy and therefore have come to different conclusions. This does not mean that our relationship is in question.”

Mr Blair has urged Europe and the US to work together and urged Europe’s leaders not to mock Washington’s strategy for fighting terrorism.

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