This time it was not the hunt for Saddam Hussein’s arsenal that caused the strains, but action to prevent terrorists getting hold of such weapons.

President Bush and Tony Blair forced the subject to the top of the agenda of the summit in Evian — a summit that the host, President Chirac, had intended should focus on the Third World and the environment.

The two presidents had prepared for the summit claiming that it was time to put their differences behind them, but the strains were evident at their first brief encounter. M Chirac greeted Mr Bush with a short handshake and a forced smile, a markedly cooler welcome than he gave other leaders, and he later inflamed the transatlantic dispute by saying that his vision of a “multipolar world” — shorthand for curbing American power — was shared by a most countries.

And while he insisted that he had not the slightest worry about their capacity to work together, he blocked Mr Bush’s key plan to police the world’s shipping lanes and seize suspicious vessels. M Chirac’s spokesman said the idea was “worth studying”, but asked how it would work and who would have legal authority.

The French are certain, however, to agree to a package aimed at reducing the risk of nuclear, chemical and biological material falling into the wrong hands. Mr Bush and Mr Blair will also secure a summit statement describing weapons of mass destruction as “the pre-eminent threat to international security”.

The package will propose stringent new controls on radioactive sources that are widely and legitimately used, such as X-ray machines, to prevent them reaching terrorist groups who might use them to make so-called “dirty” bombs. It will also propose spending some $750 million over the next ten years to help Russia to dismantle its nuclear facilities.

The plan to seize containers emphasised the Iraq war divisions after American officials said that Britain, Spain, Poland and Australia — the most enthusiastic supporters of military action against Saddam — had already been lined up to support it. And Germany, another opponent of the war, kept the wounds open when Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeal, the Development Minister, said the conflict had been about oil and not weapons and that the “world was deceived”.

The charge came only hours after Clare Short had accused Mr Blair of duping the people over Iraq’s weapons. Robin Cook also described the Government’s war policy as a “monumental blunder” and called for an independent inquiry into the handling of the war, and Labour MPs insisted that the Prime Minister publish the evidence to back his confidence that the weapons would be found.

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