Host tactics manage to offend nearly all of their colleagues

French officials were almost heading for the bunkers to escape the barrage of insults at Nice. Nearly everyone was disgruntled: the small countries, the Commission, Germany and the Parliament.

For Paris the dissatisfaction was commensurate with France's determination to complete the Inter-Governmental Conference. And it was rooted in atavistic cultural differences. "If Luxembourg held the presidency, no one would say such things," a French official complained. "All the old prejudices are bubbling out. I've heard people mention Napoleon!"

Portugal organised a meeting of small countries to head off what it, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland and others claimed was a French attempt to establish a directoire of big countries. In a closed meeting, Mr Chirac allegedly argued that larger countries were "more efficient at running things". Small states felt that Paris tried to railroad them into giving up their commissioners as well as reducing their voting power.

"Of course the little countries have a less favourable weighting than before," said Ms Catherine Colonna, Mr Chirac's spokeswoman. "The situation was inordinately favourable to them." Diplomats from small countries claimed Mr Chirac took no account of what they said in their Friday "confessionals".

"For six months the French have been preaching to us about making sacrifices for the good of Europe," a diplomat said. "But when did the French ever sacrifice any of their national interests?"

The Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, has by consensus been less than dynamic, but other Europeans found Mr Chirac's treatment of him cavalier. Mr Prodi was not allowed to participate in the "confessionals", and although he held his own bi-lateral meetings, the French showed no interest in hearing about them. When one of Mr Prodi's aides brought documents to him during a Nice dinner, Mr Chirac ordered him to leave, whereupon Mr Prodi snapped, "I meet my advisers where and when I please."

Small countries complain that France values its relationship with Germany to the exclusion of others. Paris refused to consider "decoupling" its vote weighting in the European Council from Germany's, although Germany has 23 million more people. This was inconsistent with the French attitude towards smaller countries, who were told to give up voting power over far smaller differences in population.

German sources said Chancellor Gerhard Schroder has distrusted Mr Chirac since the Berlin summit in March 1999, when the French president said he would walk out on Agenda 2000 talks rather than accept cuts in EU farm spending.

Paris claims there was an understanding at the time of German reunification that Germany would not be allowed to overpower France within the EU. If true, the commitment was made by a different chancellor from a different generation and political party. On Saturday, Mr Schroder walked red-faced out of a meeting with Mr Chirac, saying he could not discuss a complex document available to him in French and English but not German.

Mr Chirac has convinced many of his European partners that he wants what a Swedish source called "a strong Europe with weak institutions".