French MPs have voted in favour of amending their country's constitution to allow adoption of the EU Lisbon Treaty.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon called the decision: "a vote that distinguishes the actors of history from the spectators."

The Versailles assembly, bringing together both the French Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, voted 560 to 181.

Of the 893 voters present, 741 votes were cast

The opposition Socialists, while in favour of the treaty, largely abstained in protest at the decision to "take the parliamentary road" to pass the treaty rather than hold a referendum.

The party, however, is very much divided on the issue. Although ahead of the vote, the Socialists had announced they were all to abstain, many voted for the amendment and many voted against.

The prospect of a general election in Italy in April grew stronger yesterday after an attempt failed to form an interim government in order to first change the voting rules.

Senate speaker Franco Marini had been asked last Wednesday, after Romano Prodi's centre-left government lost a confidence vote last month, to find cross-party support for an interim government to legislate a change in elections so they produce a more decisive outcome.

Being ahead in opinion polls, Silvio Berlusconi and his opposition centre-right allies blocked talks, thus paving the way for the dissolution of parliament this week and a poll on the existing law on April 6 or 13. Berlusconi passed the law during his second term in 2005; it is credited with giving undue weight in parliament to small parties.

Forming an interim administration now to change that system, as Marini had been requested by President Giorgio Napolitano, was "a useless waste of time," Berlusconi said yesterday.

Angry employees locked their British boss in his factory for 48 hours in an attempt to stop him shipping their jobs to Central Europe to avoid France's onerous labour laws.

The incident at the BRS car parts company, near to the eastern city of Besançon, was the second this year in which French workers have detained a British manager amid anger over job losses blamed on globalisation. "Anglo-Saxon" free trade doctrines are seen as a spur for la délocalisation, the much-feared export of jobs, which President Sarkozy promised to fight.

Mike Bacon, the head of BRS, which makes fittings for the car industry, was prevented from leaving his plant on Saturday morning after workers spotted Slovakian lorries loading equipment. The 38 staff had not received their January pay and suspected that he was shipping out to Slovakia, where he runs another plant.

The workers released Mr Bacon yesterday afternoon after accompanying him to a court where a judge ordered the liquidation of the company, which was taken over a year ago by a subsidiary of the Suffolk-based Utilux company.

FRANKFURT: The day after the emergency interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve two weeks ago, Jean-Claude Trichet went before the European Parliament to deliver perhaps the most eagerly anticipated speech of his four years as president of the European Central Bank.

It was a dense, technical presentation, packed with meaty thoughts on how Europe's financial system could navigate the credit crisis that had begun in the United States. But his audience only cared about one thing: Would the European Central Bank follow the Fed's landmark cut?

The answer, which Trichet saved for the tail end of the talk, was no. Fighting inflation, he said, was still the bank's No. 1 goal, the "needle of our compass," to use his well-worn phrase, which doesn't mean, of course, that the bank will never cut rates again.

It was a vintage performance by the world's other most important central banker, showing off both Trichet's cool-headed response to the market turmoil and his iron resolve that the ECB chart its own course in responding to the troubles in the United States.

Nato has begun an investigation into British findings that wind farms make overflying planes invisible to radar as military chiefs fear a security threat from the rapid spread of the turbines.

The US has been attending tests by Britain's Air Warfare Centre after it made the surprise discovery that the energy plants create blind spots in air defences.

Renewable energy campaigners have been stung by a spate of last-minute objections from the Ministry of Defence to proposed new wind farms in northeast England and the Scottish Borders.

Nato's alarm about this potential Achilles' heel against airborne terrorists or invaders is disclosed in evidence, seen by The Times, for a planning inquiry.

The MoD is now objecting routinely to all wind farms within line of sight of radar stations, irrespective of distance. There is currently no known technical solution.

Evidence was given by Squadron Leader Chris Breedon, opposing a 48-turbine wind farm at Fallago Rig in the Lammermuir Hills in Scotland. "As a result of MoD trials proving that wind turbines adversely influence the performance of military and civilian radar systems operating within radar line of sight, Nato has become concerned about the rapid increase in the number of wind turbine farm projects under planning or in development in a number of Nato countries," he said.

Recent election setbacks and internal party squabbles have hit the popularity of both Angela Merkel and her Christian Democrats, opinion polls revealed on Monday.

Support for the CDU fell four percentage points to 35 per cent, the lowest level in 10 months, according to a survey by the Forsa agency. The chancellor remains Germany's most popular politician, although her ratings fell four points to 74 per cent, according to a separate poll.

The Social Democrats, Ms Merkel's coalition allies, have also lost support, down two points to 25 per cent. Analysts said the parties are still reeling from regional elections in late January in which both the CDU and SPD suffered heavy losses and the Left Party, a new anti-reform grouping, for the first time entered important regional parliaments in west Germany.

The Left, composed largely of ex-communists and SPD dissidents, saw their support increase to 14 per cent in the Forsa poll, the highest level for over a year.

Last Friday, and again since Monday, one of the rail unions is striking. They have their effect in East Hungary and around Budapest, including my daily commute. It's the same routine every day: maybe one or two trains in the morning, but as striking workers are replaced, traffic runs up in the afternoon.

This time, I thnk the strike is foolish, and clearly a power-gaining attempt from that one union (which was in the lead during the prior strikes, too). The precedent is something I opposed, the privatisation of the freight branch on 2 January (sold to the Austrian Federal Railways's freight branch): the striking union calls for a 'dividend' to all railway workers from the privatisation income.

Methinks dividends should come from operating profits only, and as sad as it is to spend privatisation income on the maintenance of the remaining state railways, that's still more sensible for employees than cashing in and then let the state dissolve the remains of the company.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has attended the launch of a new high-speed train made by engineering giant Alstom.

The AGV (Automotrice Grande Vitesse) train will travel at up to 360km/h (224mph), powered by engines placed under each carriage, the company says.

The absence of locomotives at either end allows it to carry more passengers.

Alstom compares the AGV - successor to the TGV - to the world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, in terms of importance and innovation.