To understand just how much Nicolas Sarkozy has upturned French diplomacy, try inserting the name Jacques Chirac into the following report. The French president invited himself to Camp David (see picture), where he appeared alongside "dear George", spoke warmly of "the great American nation" and called for a special summit of G8 countries to "re-found capitalism" soon after the American presidential election. The Americans should host it, he declared, "because the crisis took off in New York". President George Bush, appearing rather startled, limply agreed (the White House has since announced that the summit will meet near Washington, dc, on November 15th).rnThe whirlwind of emergency summits held or planned by Mr Sarkozy over the past few weeks has been positively dizzying. He wants to hold yet another European Union meeting (France occupies the rotating six-monthly EU presidency) to prepare for the new financial summit. At the end of this week he was due in Beijing for an EU-Asia summit, hoping to get the Chinese and others on board.
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