Of the two top visitors President George W. Bush received from western Europe last week, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France received the lion’s share of the attention in Washington, while Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel came and went from Texas with far less fanfare.

Mr Sarkozy addressed a joint session of the US Congress, and was rewarded with several standing ovations and a full-scale official dinner at the White House. He did not mention the bitter divisions between Paris and Washington over Iraq, and made the right sort of noises threatening to step up sanctions on Iran if Tehran did not abandon its uranium enrichment programme. He even mentioned the chances of France rejoining the military aspects of the Nato alliance.