So long as that could be done without doing permanent damage to relations either with America or within Europe, France could sustain its pirouette on the world stage to some applause.

ECONOMIST: Time for Iraq to disarm peacefully is fast running out

"The work on evacuation is only part of an enormous amount of work the government and frontline services have done and are doing to be as prepared as possible to cope with any major incident and not only terrorism, " the spokesman said.

BBC: Parts of London could be evacuated in the event of an attack