VIOLENT row with his partner in a Moroccan hotel came home to haunt Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French Foreign Minister, yesterday, when Le Monde reported the incident and the anger of President Chirac.

In a devastating profile, Le Monde called M Douste- Blazy, 53, “Mr Bluff” and “a talented liar”. The minister, who has earned a name for gaffes since he was appointed last May, was embarrassed when lesser media reported last month that he and Dominique Cantien had allegedly engaged in a screaming row in and outside their room in Marrakesh on New Year’s Eve.

According to Le Canard Enchaîné, a usually wellinformed weekly, the Moroccan Government had paid a bill for £20,000 damage to a room in the Mamounia, a grand hotel.

M Douste-Blazy and the Rabat Government denied that there had been damage, but that did not stop opposition MPs from chanting “Mamounia, Mamounia” when the Foreign Minister next addressed the House.

Le Monde said that people in neighbouring rooms had witnessed M Douste-Blazy and Mme Cantien in a shouting match in their underwear outside their room.

The minister spent the rest of the night in the room of one of his bodyguards and left alone for Paris. M DousteBlazy told the newspaper that “perhaps only an ashtray” had been broken.

The undiplomatic behaviour of M Douste-Blazy, the Mayor of Toulouse until last year, had stirred M Chirac’s wrath, Le Monde reported.

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