PRESIDENT Jacques Chirac left for Washington yesterday to discuss nuclear disarmament and seek a more equal partnership for France with the US in Nato after ending atomic tests that damaged France's international image.
Mr Chirac, who has moved France back towards Nato's military organisation after a 30 year break, said that he considered Nato "a permanent cornerstone of French security".
"But its military structure corresponds to a time when the world was divided in two and East confronted West," he said in an interview with the Washington Post published on the day he left Paris for a three day visit to the US.
"Today, things have changed. France has moved close to Nato recently because it wants to play an active role in a reorganised alliance. We need to reflect on a new long term vision, one that is based on a more equal partnership, with Europe doing more for its own security," Mr Chirac said.
The French President will address a joint session of Congress today and meet President Clinton in Washington. He travels to Chicago tomorrow.
. The US consulate in Bordeaux, the oldest US diplomatic office in the world, closed yesterday, a victim of State Department budget cuts. The diplomatic outpost was set up in the port city in 1790 rather than Paris because it was from Bordeaux that the French shipped arms to the rebels during the 1775-1783 American War of Independence.