An astonishing series of wisecracks from President Jacques Chirac about mad cow disease and awful British cooking brought Anglo-French rivalries into the open today only two days before Paris and London face off as rival candidates to host the 2012 Summer Games.

The French daily Liberation reported today that M Chirac entertained Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and President Vladimir Putin with a series of anti-British jokes on a balcony in the Russian city of Kaliningrad yesterday - unaware that he could be overheard by a small group of journalists covering the city's 150th anniversary celebrations.

First of all M Chirac questioned the UK's contribution to the European Union farm sector, quipping: "The only thing they have done for European agriculture is mad cow disease."

Then he warned his fellow leaders that in any case "one could not trust people with such awful cooking", adding: "After Finland, it's the country where you eat the worst."

"What about hamburgers?" asked Mr Putin, who, according to Liberation, "is still cultivating the vestiges of a rivalry with the United States". "No, no, hamburgers are nothing in comparison," replied M Chirac, before telling a story about how Lord Robertson, the former Nato Secretary-General, had made him taste a delicacy from his native Scotland. He explained: "That's where our problems with Nato came from."

Publication of the Liberation report sent reporters in Singapore, where International Olympic Committee (IOC) members are meeting, scurrying for comment.

A carefully choreographed charm offensive by the London bid team had already been upset earlier today when two Australians who act as consultants for the London bid openly criticised the stadium at the heart of the favoured Paris bid.

Philip Webster, Political Editor of The Times, said that Tony Blair, who arrived in Singapore yesterday, carefully avoided commenting on M Chirac's remarks. "He's refusing to rise to the bait," Webster said.

Paris is the odds-on favourite to lift sport's biggest prize the IOC votes on Wednesday, with London the other candidate city given a chance of victory. Madrid, New York and Moscow are the only other cities still standing in the quadrennial IOC beauty contest.

The London bid team managed to avoid an IOC reprimand today when Australians Jim Sloman and Rod Sheard used a London bid press conference to take a dig at the Stade de France for "sight-line" problems.

Mr Sloman, chief operating officer at the Sydney 2000 Games, told a news conference in Singapore attended by Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, and Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, that the stadium was not ideal for athletics, with restricted views from some parts of the stadium.

"I do not think it is an advantage for Paris to have a stadium already because Sydney and Atlanta did not have one," he said. "It has been built for football, not athletics, and even though they had an athletics championships in the last couple of years, they still have sight line problems. The London stadium will be built for athletics."