Battle of the First Ladies | France braced for more protests | Nato struggles with choice of leader | WAG guide to Baden-Baden

President Barack Obama today issued another veiled warning to the North Koreans to call off their planned test launch of a long-range ballistic missile, which he said would be a provocative move.

Speaking at a press conference with President Nicolas Sarkozy after a meeting with the French leader at Rohan Palace in central Strasbourg, the US President said North Korea's response to his previous warning had been to resort to the sort of language "that has led to North Korea's isolation in the international community for a long time".

President Obama said the international community would act against North Korea if it went ahead with the launch, although he gave no indication of what he had in mind. Japan, South Korea, Russia and China have all pressed North Korea not to go forward with the action.

Mr Obama said: “Should North Korea decide to take this action, we will work with all interested partners in the international community to take appropriate steps to let North Korea know that they cannot threaten the safety and stability of other countries with impunity.”

North Korea insists that the rocket is the vehicle for a peaceful communications satellite, not a missile, and has threatened war in response to any attempt to shoot it down.

Wth the launch predicted in a matter of hours, diplomats were today struggling to find ways of responding to an act which appears calculated to provoke western opinion.

Batteries of Patriot missiles were on stand by in northern Japan, after reports that the rocket had been fully fuelled at the Musudan-ri launch site in the north-east of North Korea.

Japanese villages under the rocket’s flight path set up emergency communication links with the Cabinet Office in Tokyo for the unlikely event that the missile falls short of its intended target and strikes Japanese territory.

The sombre note struck by Mr Obama punctuated what was otherwise a verbal back-slapping occasion in he and Mr Sarkozy highlighted the close relationship between the United States and France ahead of the two-day Nato summit

The meeting is taking place in three locations – Baden-Baden in Germany tonight for a dinner, Kehl tomorrow morning when Chancellor Angela Merkel, the German leader, will walk across the bridge over the Rhine outside the town to meet President Sarkozy, and then on to Strasbourg for a full plenary session of the summit leaders.

Earlier saw one of the most eagerly awaited photocalls in years. Michelle Obama, wife of the US President who has been received as a star in her own right wherever she has gone, and Carla Bruni, the equally elegant wife of the French President, lining up with their husbands on the steps of the palace to be photographed.

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