The French Environment Minister, Ms Dominique Voynet, yesterday angrily rejected claims by Britain's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, that she was responsible for collapsing the UN climate change summit in The Hague.
Mr Prescott had attempted to broker a deal with the US-led umbrella group of countries in all-night talks before the summit was suspended. He accused Ms Voynet of scuppering it because she had "cold feet" and was too "tired and exhausted" to understand its complexities.
Yesterday the French minister hit back, describing Mr Prescott as "first and foremost an inveterate macho man" for suggesting that a woman "obviously has to be tired, fearful and not understand things". What he had said was "really pathetic", she told French radio.
"John Prescott needs to remember that I was not just representing France, but all the European Union," Ms Voynet declared. She was supported by the Danish Environment Minister, Mr Svend Auken, who said Mr Prescott was "a lone dissenting voice" in the EU.
"I am astonished at his attack. He must be under a lot of strain," Mr Auken added. "If ever an apology is called for, now is the case." The Danish minister had been one of those who strongly argued that the EU needed to hold the line against a weak, compromise deal.
Throughout the final week of marathon talks at the Netherlands Congress Centre, Ms Voynet had made a name for herself by spelling out clearly - on the EU's behalf - that it was not prepared to settle for an agreement on any terms. In the House of Commons yesterday Mr Prescott attempted to defuse the row by saying that he would be working with Ms Voynet and other EU environment ministers to secure an international agreement on curbing the emissions of harmful greenhouse gases.
"Macho man - moi?", he joked after acknowledging that her commitment to securing such a deal was "as passionate as mine" - though he stopped short of apologising for his remarks, which reflected his own frustration over the failure of his mediation efforts.
Last Saturday morning, Mr Prescott believed that he was on the point of concluding a "ground-breaking deal" with the US and its allies. He was said to be furious when his EU colleagues, led by Ms Voynet, rejected this plan.
The essence of Mr Prescott's proposed deal was that it would have restricted the use of forestry plantations in developing countries as "sinks" for carbon dioxide emissions. However, it would have allowed the US to claim credits for its own existing forests and farmland.
Though Mr Prescott believed that this compromise represented a step forward from the terms of the paper presented to the conference last Thursday night by its president, Mr Jan Pronk, the Dutch Environment Minister, his EU colleagues felt it did not go far enough.
Their bottom line was to protect the "environmental integrity" of the Kyoto Protocol, negotiated in December 1997, under which industrialised countries are required to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 per cent overall, based on 1990 levels, by 2010.
Mr Thomas Legge, a Dublin-born Greenpeace lobbyist based in Brussels, said it was clear that Mr Prescott was "on his own" in believing that the EU would agree to his compromise proposal. "Its over-generous definition of `sinks' gave too much to the Americans."
While Greenpeace was "extremely disappointed" that the Hague summit had collapsed, it was pleased that the EU had held its "strong position", Mr Legge told The Irish Times: "It's also important to point out that the compromise had no support from developing countries."
