In Portugal, there is anger at the perceived lack of prevention

With record temperatures sparking forest fires, driving up ozone levels and causing drought across Europe, some of the continent's press is losing its cool.

Reactions vary from flippancy to serious concern over climate change and perceived mismanagement.

France is experiencing "its hottest summer since 1949", a headline in Le Figaro says, while Germany "sweats and groans" in temperatures nearing 40C, according to the tabloid Bild.

"There is talk of nothing else among the Spanish," says leading daily El Mundo of the heatwave that has killed 14 people.

In Portugal, there is anger at the government as forest fires continue to rage.

If the current weather continues, it means that it's not a heatwave, but climate change Liberation

The daily Diario de Noticias thinks it's a "good time for some humility" from Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.

"The prime minister has missed an opportunity to recognize that there are not enough resources to fight such extensive fires, that not enough preventive measures were taken, that there was not enough investment - even worse, investment was cut back," it says.

But Portugal "cannot resign itself to becoming an ever-more impotent fireman", the paper says, and urges the government to develop the areas affected by the fires and combat their "physical and human desertification".

An article in Publico blames the fires on arsonists, and lambasts the lack of political will to deal with the issue.

Over in Spain, however, where forest fires are now largely under control, papers are more upbeat.

"We can't talk about a lack of planning on behalf of the authorities", Madrid daily ABC says. "You only have to take a look at neighbouring Portugal to realize the progress that's been made in our country in this respect."

People will have to adapt their entire way of thinking. Sueddeutsche Zeitung

Thoughts are also turning to the wider environmental implications of the heatwave, with many papers convinced that global warming is now a fact of life.

If the current weather continues, France's Liberation warns, "it means that it's not a heatwave, but climate change".

Of course, it adds, no expert would admit such a thing, but "the perspiring layman" is already "looking at the weather records, extrapolating graphs and concluding that the greenhouse effect is already interfering with our climate".

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung would agree.

"Just like the floods of 2002, the heatwave of 2003 is giving us a taste of the kind of weather future generations will increasingly have to think of as normal," it says.

However, building barriers to keep back rising sea levels - and installing air conditioning - is not the answer, the paper says.

"No technology in the world is going to keep nature and the weather at bay for long. People will have to adapt their entire way of thinking."

Too hot to go to work Liberation

Danish daily Information also urges political action to limit energy consumption and encourage renewable energy sources.

It takes the opportunity to chide some politicians for their approach to global problems.

"It is strange that people who favour widespread war in the fight against terrorism can be so apathetic when it comes to doing a little more to make the world a little less unsafe," it says acidly.

For the short term, however, some commentators in France and Germany are more concerned with getting a day off for sweltering employees.

"Too hot to go to work," a headline in French daily Liberation declares simply, while Frankfurter Rundschau warns Germans that, according to a court ruling, they have no right to demand time off work because of the heat.

"Most employers are only prepared to make minor concessions, such as additional breaks, free drinks, and more relaxed dress codes," the paper complains.

But Bild wants action from politicians, and has some radical, if perhaps predictable, ideas. "Chancellor Schroeder, do something!", its front-page headline demands. "Only the chancellor can save us from sunstroke now, by giving us time off work, free raspberry ice cream - and large quantities of free beer!"

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.