Nicolas Sarkozy insults Spanish PM

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, as reported here on Friday, has managed to mock not only President Barack Obama - whom he called "inexperienced" and "not always up to scratch with decisions and efficiency" - but also the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. It transpires that the latter insult is potentially more damaging - because Sarko is about to pay a state visit to Madrid with his wife Carla Bruni.

It couldn't be more embarrassing: the word around the Elysee Palace is that at a meeting of French MPs Sarkozy said Zapatero was "perhaps not particularly intelligent".

And what makes it worse is that many Spaniards apparently agree with him - which doesn't mean they think he had the right to say it. Websites have been carrying responses such as: "We don't need a Frenchman to tell us that" and "Hands up anyone who disagrees".

The Sarkozys are due in Madrid on April 27 and 28 and will attend a banquet hosted by the King and Queen of Spain, neither of whom are great supporters of their prime minister. Queen Sofia, in particular, is not keen on his promotion of gay rights.

Sarko has, however, improved his chances of at least a luke-warm reception in Madrid with the arrest by French forces of the military leader of the Basque separatist group Eta. Jurdan Martitegi Lizaso was captured over the weekend near Perpignan, in a joint Franco-Spanish security operation.

Eta, responsible for more than 800 deaths in its 40-year campaign for an independent Basque nation, continues to be a thorn in the Spanish government's side and Zapatero will be grateful that Lizaso, the third suspected Eta military leader picked up in less than six months, is behind bars.