Wednesday's papers take an interest in the British prime minister's admission that weapons of mass destruction may never be found in Iraq, and in the latest UN report on the spread of the Aids virus.
Meanwhile, there is reaction to the Spanish prime minister's promise that from now on all troop deployments abroad will be subject to parliamentary approval.
'Tactical move'
Germany's Berliner Zeitung sees the admission by British Prime Minister Tony Blair that WMD may never be found in Iraq as "no more than a tactical move".
It argues that he had "made a fool of himself" by repeatedly claiming that sooner or later something would be found.
| With a simple sentence Tony Blair started a
verbal retreat Le Temps |
But it notes that he has still not apologised for what it calls "misleading" the public over the quality of the intelligence gathered on Iraq.
"With a simple sentence", says the Swiss Le Temps , "Tony Blair started a verbal retreat which he hopes will draw a line under the stumbling block that Iraq has become... and will enable him to tackle a long run-up to elections free from such a hindrance".
"With less than a year to go to the likely date of the general elections," it notes, "battle has been joined over domestic issues, and here too, the prime minister seems to have lost his drive."
"And on matters such as health, education and transport," the paper points out, "there is no possible verbal retreat."
Straw's warming effect
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw arrived in Russia on Tuesday on a two-day working visit, with Iraq very much at the top of the agenda.
The visit, Moscow's Nezavisimaya Gazeta predicts, will "bring an end to the cooling in bilateral relations caused by the Iraq war".
The paper notes that the seniority of British officials visiting Moscow is rising, and that Prime Minister Tony Blair himself is expected "in the not too distant future".
"It seems that the cold spell in bilateral relations is over," it concludes.
But Kommersant , still in Moscow, takes a diametrically opposed view.
It says that Mr Straw will not be received by President Vladimir Putin, "even though it has become a tradition that, as a rule, the Russian president meets visiting foreign ministers from the world's leading nations".
"It seems, therefore," the paper concludes, that the chill in relations between Moscow and London is not over yet."
Aids crisis
| German clients still often want sex without a
condom, and that means: full risk Der Tagesspiegel |
It fears that Germany will also be affected because many east European women regard prostitution as a way out of poverty and because prostitution is one way in which the virus can be transmitted.
"German clients still often want sex without a condom, and that means full risk," the paper says.
Die Tageszeitung believes "there is no reason not to take the fight against a killer such as Aids as well as other devastating diseases, such as malaria, as seriously as the fight against weapons of mass destruction and terrorists".
France's Liberation takes some comfort from the view of specialised NGOs that "it is not too late to prevent the worst".
Democracy in action?
With the European parliament due to elect its new president in two weeks' time, France's Le Monde laments a wasted opportunity to fill the post with, as the paper puts it, "an emblematic figure for a reunified Europe".
The figure in question is former Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek, whom the paper describes as "a true European in every sense of the word".
His "handicap", it says, is that he belongs to neither of the two dominant groups in the parliament, the PPE on the Right, and the PSE on the Left.
They have already agreed to share the post by cutting the term of office into two halves for their respective candidates.
Spain Iraq move
Madrid's El Pais notes that the Spanish parliament, for the first time in its history, was consulted on the deployment of troops abroad.
Its response, the paper notes, was to approve by "an overwhelming majority", the strengthening of the Spanish contingent in Afghanistan and the dispatching of a Civil Guard unit to Haiti.
The paper sees Prime Minister Rodriguez Zapatero's decision to consult parliament as a "watershed" in the country's participation in international military operations.
It notes that Mr Zapatero has pledged to introduce legislation requiring government in future to submit such troop deployments to parliament.
Oslo protests
Oslo's Aftenposten welcomes the Norwegian government's decision to protest to the US about the abuse of children in Iraqi prisons.
"If the information about abuse, which emerged in a German documentary, is correct," the paper says, "then the American military has once again breached the Geneva Conventions and other international laws during the war in Iraq."
"So it is fully right and proper that Norway should make its views known to the USA", it adds.
The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/2/hi/europe/3872147.stm
Wednesday's papers take an interest in the British prime minister's admission that weapons of mass destruction may never be found in Iraq.
