France's 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 said that French diplomacy had been "hostile."

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, they said.

"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."

The authors also wrote that the United States should "should start a debate within Europe over the French ambition to build the European Union into an anti-American counterweight."

"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 a former Bush speech writer said to have coined the "Axis of Evil" phrase and who left the White House in

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

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