Sarkozy turns guns on President Obama

President Nicolas Sarkozy (pictured) has broken every convention in the diplomatic handbook by revealing exactly what he thinks of his fellow world leaders. Unarguably the most trenchant of his barbs, which he made during a lunch with an all-party group of French MPs at Elysee Palace this week, were aimed at Barack Obama, whom he brands as inexperienced and indecisive.

Obama has a subtle mind, very clever and very charismatic, said Sarkozy, according to a report in the newspaper Liberation. But he was elected two months ago and had never run a ministry. There are a certain number of things on which he has no position. And he is not always up to standard on decision-making and efficiency.

He went on to claim that Obama had underperformed on climate change. Sarkozy is said to have told him: "I don't think that you have quite understood what we are doing on carbon dioxide."

Sarkozy was also reported yesterday to have cracked a joke about Europe’s Obamamania. According to L'Express, a news magazine, he mentioned the president’s planned visit to Normandy for the D-day anniversary in June, saying: "I am going to ask him to walk on the Channel, and he'll do it."

So what brought this on? According to the Times, Sarko is irked by media reports that Obama saved the day at the G20 summit by persuading President Hu of China to reach a compromise with France over tax havens. Sarkozy’s version is that he in fact shamed Obama into action and should have the credit. He is also annoyed that Obama is calling for Turkish membership of the EU, an idea that is none too popular in France.

But it was not just Obama who has felt his ire. Sarkozy is also said to have told the assembled MPs that Spain's leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, was not very clever. And he said that Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, had come round to his side on the economy at the G20 summit only when she realised that the German economy was in trouble. "She did not have any other choice but to rally to my position,"he said. Oddly, Gordon Brown did not get a mention.