PRESIDENT CHIRAC is ready to put aside FrancoBritish feuding for the sake of consensus tomorrow, but the truce depends on Tony Blair holding his own fire against France on farm spending, Elysée Palace officials said.

M Chirac, on his first foreign trip since suffering a minor stroke in September, wants the summit to show that Europe has not broken down as the result of the French and Dutch “no” to the constitution and quarrels over trade, farm spending and protectionism.

In a gesture to Mr Blair, M Chirac will propose that European spending on research be doubled — without increasing the EU budget and without cuts in agricultural subsidies. “There is no intention of causing difficulties for the British EU presidency,” an Elysée official said. Catherine Colonna, a close Chirac aide who is now Europe Minister, said: “We want the summit to succeed.”

M Chirac, who turns 73 next month, is determined to show that, despite arguments with Brussels over trade, France is not as isolated in Europe as its critics maintain. He accepts that the new EU budget, the subject of bitter Franco-British dispute, should stay off tomorrow’s agenda, but he will hit back if Mr Blair resumes his demands for a revamp of the Common Agriculture Policy.

A senior Chirac aide said: “Britain is completely isolated on this issue, and the others cannot concede this point.”

France is leading the drive to force Britain to give up its £3.3 billion-a-year rebate on its contribution to EU spending, while Mr Blair says that it must accept cuts in farm subsidies.

Beyond possible haggling over money, the French are not letting down their guard in the struggle for shaping the Union. French politicians say that much of the Continent is behind their defence of the protective European “social model”.

President Chirac is likely to reopen his suggestion of “pioneer groups” forming within the 25 EU states to create areas of closer integration. His aide said this would ensure that “the slowest, the most fearful or the most reserved nations do not hold back those wanting to work together more closely”.

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