An apparent crisis has erupted in international efforts to resolve the decades-old conflict in Sri Lanka following a European Union decision to brand the rebel Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group and the Tiger insistence that EU members be excluded from the mission which has been monitoring the shaky truce with the government of the South Asian island state.

While French President Jacques Chirac rushed to judgment in favour of a new attitude toward Indias nuclear plans, there are other Europeans concerned about consequences of the lead taken by President Bush in charting a special status for New Delhi in the international regime on nuclear weapons proliferation.

A French Presidential visit to India that began under a cloud of controversy over industrial and environment issues concluded with the signature of a number of major cooperation agreements and contracts aiming at enhancing relations on several fronts.

Whatever else transpires during French President Jacques Chirac’s state visit to India, the events preceding the voyage have been nothing short of a tragic-comic policy nightmare.