EU gambles on next US president

Europeans do not get to vote in the November US presidential election, but many wish they did, and their foreign ministers decided that they would at least take a gamble behind closed doors.

During informal talks in Avignon, France, on the future of transatlantic relations, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband asked his European Union counterparts to bet on who would win the November 4 election.

"He circulated a piece of paper ... I gave my answer. I think everybody did, didn't they?" French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said at a news conference. He declined to disclose the result.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, ever the diplomat, said he had declined to enter a bet, prompting Mr Kouchner to exclaim: "Coward!"

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters he had given his bet, but like Mr Kouchner he would not say whether he had bet on Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama to win the White House.

Mr Kouchner said Mr Miliband's initiative had been welcome because it relaxed the atmosphere at an EU meeting that was at times tense due to differences over dealing with Russia.

Other foreign ministers, including Austria's Ursula Plassnik and Luxembourg's Jean Asselborn said the proposal to bet had only been a joke. "Nothing happened," Mr Asselborn told Reuters.