"(French President) Jacques Chirac volunteered as Saddam Hussein's most important ally and protector," Richard Perle and David Frum said in their new book "An End to Evil."

The authors, whose promotional tour began Monday, promote a so-called neo-conservative use of US military force to pacify the world.

They take aim at countries they said stand in the way of Bush's "War on Terror," especially Saudi Arabia, Russia and France. The authors allot more ink and harsher language to France than to Russia.

They call French diplomacy "hostile."

"We should start a debate within Europe over the French ambition to build the European Union into an anti-American counterweight," they authors wrote.

"And where France led, other NATO countries followed: Germany most importantly, but also France's pilot fish, Belgium."

"A more closely integrated Europe is no longer an unqualified American interest."

Perle is a member of the Pentagon advisory board, who resigned his chairmanship over a conflict of interest. Frum is the former Bush speech writer who coined "Axis of Evil" and who left the White House in 2003.

They were two of the hardline administration officials who argued for toppling Saddam Hussein.

Perle and Frum said that most European countries probably disapprove of the French position, especially the former Soviet bloc states. Enlarging NATO would dilute France's influence.

"The bigger the EU grows, the less amenable it will become to French aspirations to boss the other states," they wrote.

"We should force European governments to choose between Paris and Washington."

"We should insist that all-important NATO business be conducted by NATO's military council, on which France does not sit.

"And we can visibly limit our cooperation with France's military and intelligence services to reflect the level of political cooperation."

WAR.WIRE