Cameron, Hollande vow to end differences

LONDON: French President Francois Hollande held talks with Prime Minister David Cameron aimed at smoothing over a slew of recent differences as he made his first official visit to Britain yesterday.
Cameron welcomed Hollande at the Foreign Office in London with a guard of honour comprising soldiers in red tunics and bearskin hats, and Hollande then stood to attention as a military band played the French national anthem.
Hollande, who came to power in May, will later be received by Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle just outside London for a teatime meeting during which the British monarch will speak in French.
Socialist Hollande played down disagreements with Conservative Cameron over host of issues affecting the two NATO and European Union allies, including tax, financial regulation and the eurozone crisis.
"I have come to reaffirm the strength of relations between France and Britain", Hollande told a reception of French expatriates at the start of his one-day visit.
"We share positions in several areas, but not in all... It is true that on economic and monetary union we have positions that are, let us say, nuanced."
Hollande said they shared "many points in common in foreign policy", citing the crisis in Syria, Iran's nuclear program, and the French and British cooperation in the NATO air war against Libya in 2011.
Relations between Cameron and Hollande have been difficult since the British leader apparently snubbed then-presidential candidate Hollande when he made an election campaign visit to London in February. The pair held their first bilateral meeting before the G8 summit in Washington last May.
But Cameron then riled the French last month when he said he would "roll out the red carpet" for any French high earners fleeing Hollande's plan to impose a 75 percent tax rate on top salaries.
British officials refrained from rolling out a red carpet for Hollande's arrival at RAF Northolt airbase in order to avoid any reference to the incident, a source said.
Cameron's spokesman said the talks between the two men and an ensuing 90-minute working lunch at his 10 Downing Street residence would focus on the range of bilateral issues."
"I would expect them to cover the economy, the situation in the eurozone, a number of foreign policy issues and our ongoing cooperation on defense," the spokesman said.
Cameron and Hollande's predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy signed a Franco-British defense deal in 2010 under which the two countries agreed to share the use of their aircraft carriers.
That pact ran into trouble earlier this year when Britain's choice of fighter jet for its future carriers made it impossible for French warplanes to use the ships.