Renault braved a huge political storm to close its Vilvoorde factory in Belgium three years ago.

ECONOMIST: Detroit rules, OK?

That, and being 200 miles from Paris, in a foreign country, was enough to seal Vilvoorde's fate.

ECONOMIST: Europe's great car war

The parties also settled a row over the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde electoral district fuelled by Flemish fears of encroachment by French-speakers.

ECONOMIST: Belgium��s new government

In 1997, Renault, in which the French government held shares, announced that it was closing a factory at Vilvoorde, on the outskirts of Brussels.

ECONOMIST: You��re fired

The francophone parties, meanwhile, are not directly opposed to a split, but are keen to ensure safeguards for French speakers in Halle and Vilvoorde.

ECONOMIST: The woeful state of Belgian politics

Mr Jospin's apparent acceptance of Renault's closure of its Vilvoorde factory in Belgium, with a loss of more than 3, 000 jobs, particularly riles his more left-wing supporters.

ECONOMIST: France still trapped | The

Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV) is Belgium's biggest, and only bilingual, electoral constituency.

ECONOMIST: The woeful state of Belgian politics

Vilvoorde in Belgium, which has been expen sively modernised in recent years, is as efficient as any other Renault site, but its output is modest--just 140, 000 cars a year--and is split between two models which are both made in greater numbers elsewhere.

ECONOMIST: Europe's great car war

These included proposals for the transfer from the federal to the regional level of certain aspects of fiscal, labour and healthcare policies, as well as the thorny task of reaching an agreement on the future of the bilingual electoral constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV).

ECONOMIST: The woeful state of Belgian politics