Airstrip One

Unreported in the UK Media - 12th January 2003, 13.35

The European Union's smaller countries, long suspicious of the efforts by the big powers to set up a 'Directorate', will not be happy to learn that Britain's Tony Blair, France's Jacques Chirac and Germany's Gerhard Schroeder are to have a quiet get-together Saturday at Schroeder's home in Hanover. They don't intend to talk much about Iraq, but to hammer out an agreement to ensure that they as heads of governments of nation states continue to run the EU through its Council, rather than strengthen the Commission. But Blair should not get the idea that he's now really on the inside; Schroeder and Chirac will then have an even more private meeting on Tuesday. Just the two of them.

From UPI. Only the sartorial side was noted in the Guardian. It also appears that Jacques Chirac dropped out or was never invited.

As there was no statement issued, it acted as filler for ChannelNewsAsia, and Deepika.