Happy birthday - Chirac's wine is seen as peace offering

French President Jacques Chirac has sent six bottles of highly expensive claret as a 50th birthday present to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The 1989 Chateau Mouton Rothschild wine sells in the UK for up to �200 a bottle - meaning each glass of the wine quaffed by the Blairs will be worth �30.

The gift was immediately being seen as a peace offering, after the chill in cross-Channel relationships caused by the Iraq war.

I would like to express my feelings of personal esteem and loyal friendship Jacques Chirac birthday greeting

"Dear Tony. Knowing how much you love staying in France, I have the pleasure of offering you a present illustrating the quality of the land of our country, which you know so well," Mr Chirac wrote in a birthday note accompanying to the present.

"I want to convey my very warm wishes of happiness, health and success to you and your family. I would also like to express my feelings of personal esteem and loyal friendship."

The note used "tu" - the personal French form of you, instead of the more formal "vous".

Mr Chirac, whose own 50th birthday was 20 years ago, once reportedly called Mr Blair a "whippersnapper" and "badly brought up".

He also sent an expensive Saint-Louis crystal carafe to serve the wine from.

Wine merchants praised the French president's choice.

"Chateau Mouton Rothschild is at the very top end of the market," said UK fine wine merchant Tom Lorimer of Lea and Sandeman.

If I were Jacques Chirac I would have gone for 1982 - an outstanding year - that's probably the stuff Saddam Hussein was drinking in his palaces before he lost his country Tom Lorimer Fine wine merchant

"If he had given our Prime Minister anything less I would have called him up myself to reproach him."

The choice of 1989 vintage, however, while generous, is not the best money can buy, even at �200 a bottle.

"If I were Jacques Chirac I would have gone for 1982 - an outstanding year," said Mr Lorimer.

"It is the sort of wine that Saddam Hussein was probably stocking in his palace wine cellars before he lost his country."

The 1982 vintage would have pushed the price up to �500-�650 a bottle at UK prices.

Or for a heavily symbolic gift, a 1945 bottle of the same wine would have cost around �5,400.

Blair can swap the pint for wine costing �30 a glass

Last November in Prague, Mr Blair gave Mr Chirac a �300 fountain pen named after Winston Churchill for his 70th birthday, to banish the memory of disagreements over the European Common Agricultural Policy.

He also extolled the French president's virtues in a letter to Paris Match magazine.

And although Mr Chirac seems to have the upper hand in financial generosity, Mr Blair's words at the time were fulsome in their praise of the president.

"As I have good reason to believe, Jacques Chirac is not the type to become a quiet 70-year-old," Mr Blair wrote.

"Thank goodness! Among his many assets, he has, like (General Charles) de Gaulle, 'a certain idea of France'.

"He fights for her, with tenacity, skill, and sometimes he even considers there are no holds barred."

Dear Tony, I really appreciate our regular meetings and the open discussions that we have on those occasions Gerhard Schroeder birthday message

Mr Chirac's co-leader of the EU bloc opposed to war in Iraq, Germany's Gerhard Schroeder, sent his own 50th birthday greetings to Mr Blair in the form of words not goods.

"Dear Tony", he wrote, "I really appreciate our regular meetings and the open discussions that we have on those occasions."

He thanked Mr Blair for his "personal contribution to the close co-operation between Germany and the United Kingdom, and also particularly on helping develop the European Union."

He also wished Mr Blair health and happiness in the coming year.

Legendary wine

Experts said no German red wine could have hoped to match the Bordeaux.

Only Chateau Latour, Chateau Lafite, Chateau Haut Brion and Chateau Margaux are said to be in the same league.

The Chateau Mouton Rothschild was bought by Nathaniel de Rothschild of London in 1853 who gave it its current name.

It is now owned by Philippine de Rothschild, his great-great grandaughter.