Put another way, Mr Chirac, the heir of de Gaulle, is gambling on the Euro-enthusiasm of a majority of the French people: their willingness to embrace the grand design and long-term promise of the euro, without examining too closely the short-term small print. The alternative - waiting until next March - must have looked very bleak indeed.. For years Hong Kong has been worrying about China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) crossing the border. Now it has happened, but the full impact was a little muted by the advance guard being caught up in one of the colony's famous traffic jams. Yesterday 40 unarmed soldiers arrived in Hong Kong as the first part of the advance guard which will prepare for the arrival of the full garrison after the British army departs on 30 June. Months of acrimonious negotiation preceded this historic event, which was something of an anti-climax. Packed in eight mini-buses and cars the bemused looking soldiers made their way from the border to the Prince of Wales Barracks situated in the heart of Hong Kong's financial district. Their commander, Major-General Zhou Borong, strode out of his modest black car looking pleased with himself and with the buildings which are about to become the PLA's new Hong Kong headquarters.The British put on a suitably modest welcoming ceremony, most of which was not conducted in front of the media who both outnumbered - and looked more terrifying than - the incoming PLA force."This is a historic moment for both British and Chinese armed forces," boomed Major General Bryan Dutton, the Commander of the British Forces, as he stood beside General Zhou, who gave a predictable reply in Chinese.British and Chinese negotiators are still hard at it trying to agree on how many more PLA troops will be allowed in before the handover of power.

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It seems likely that China will eventually post some 10,000 soldiers in Hong Kong, which is about the number Britain stationed in the colony before the big drawdown in 1994.Hong Kong people remain wary of the PLA, following its role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. However, a poll which appeared in the Ming Pao newspaper yesterday showed that only 29 per cent of those interviewed said they were afraid of the PLA being stationed in the territory Thirty five per cent had no such fears.. Baghdad - In a fresh display of his trademark brinkmanship, President Saddam Hussein yesterday ordered his helicopters to defy a no-fly zone enforced by American jets and fly to the Iraqi-Saudi border to bring back Iraqis returning from the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. An official statement, carried by the state-run Iraqi News Agency, vowed "suitable response" if the United States interfered with the flights. The White House warned Iraq against violating the no-fly zone, but said it would not attack the helicopters.Western allies introduced the no-fly zone after Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War. It is meant to protect inhabitants of southern Iraq from reprisals by President Saddam's army after an unsuccessful anti-government revolt in the area.The zone was extended in September to punish President Saddam for sending his army into northern Iraq to support one Kurdish faction against another. It now covers an area stretching from the southern suburbs of Baghdad down to Iraq's borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.The Iraqi News Agency said helicopters would begin ferrying "sick and exhausted" pilgrims yesterday, but did not say how many aircraft would be involved or give the number of pilgrims.But, by nightfall, there was no word from Iraqi officials or the state- run media if any flights had taken place and reporters in Baghdad were told by officials they would be flown to the Saudi border today.The decision to use helicopters to ferry home the pilgrims was made after a joint meeting yesterday of the Revolutionary Command Council and the leadership of the ruling Baath Party - Iraq's highest bodies.

The meeting was chaired by President Saddam.On 9 April, President Saddam sent an Iraqi Airways jet carrying 104 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia in defiance of United Nations sanctions imposed in 1990 for Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The sanctions ban flights in and out of Iraq.The United States failed last week to persuade the Security Council to condemn the Iraqi flight, settling instead for a mild rebuke.Yesterday's announcement is the latest of several attempts by the Iraqi leadership to test the resolve of the international community, particularly the United States, to maintain Iraq's isolation.. India's mild-mannered foreign minister, Inder Kumar Gujral, was sworn in yesterday as Indian Prime Minister, thus ending three weeks of political intrigue and dithering in New Delhi. The capital seemed relieved to avoid the suspense of another national election and to get on with business as usual.

Mr Gujral is the third prime minister to take power in Delhi since a hung parliament was voted in last spring. The 77-year-old former diplomat has a white goatee and resembles a beetle-browed Kentucky Colonel Sanders: stern but benign. After he took vows at the Presidential Palace, Mr Gujral promised "clean government" which would "root out corruption". But he did not refer to the Congress Party, whose abrupt withdrawal from the coalitionprecipitated this unexpected political crisis. "Elections are costly but the price to be paid for instability and indecision is even greater," said Atal Bihari Vajpayee, lead-er of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, who hold the most seats in Parliament and would gain the most if Mr Gujral founders.