Tony Blair has claimed the Le Touquet summit has been a success despite a failure to reach agreement over Iraq.

At the end of the day-long meeting with France's president Chirac, the prime minister accepted there were still differences over how to deal with Saddam Hussein.

Both men made light of the difficulties and highlighted a range of agreements reached on other issues such as immigration inspections and education links.

"Of course there are the difficulties that are well-known to people but there are common points," said Blair.

There was still the dossier to come from Colin Powell and the report from Hans Blix to the UN on February 14 and both countries would then make their judgements.

"What we have achieved today is very clear evidence of substance. It's not just what was agreed but substance," said the prime minister.

President Chirac said he had not changed his position and claimed public opinion in both countries had yet to be convinced of the need for war against Iraq.

"I remain in tune with public opinion both in France and Britain more than towing the Rumsfeld line," he said.

"When there are very important government issues at stake it is very important to stand by one's principles and also to respect other people's opinions."

Chirac said there was still a long way to go before France would back action against Iraq and warned that "war is always the worst possible solution".

The prime minister had been hoping to gain assurances that Paris will not use its position in the United Nations security council to veto any second resolution on Iraq, but the French president sidestepped the issue when pressed during the summit press conference.

But Blair claimed the two countries had "come together" on a range of issues in a spirit of "entente cordiale".

The summit followed an apparent snub to Chirac who was not asked to sign the recent article by eight other European leaders backing the US on Iraq.

The two leaders have been at odds recently following "Le Row" in December as well as differences over war in Iraq and the travel ban on Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.

Foreign secretary Jack Straw, home secretary David Blunkett, defence secretary Geoff Hoon, education secretary Charles Clarke, the chief of defence staff Admiral Sir Michael Boyce and foreign office minister Denis MacShane all met with their French counterparts.

"The meeting set out a number of areas where we and the French government want to deepen our co-operation," said Downing Street.

Some movement on agriculture policy reform is also expected by negotiators.

David Blunkett reached agreement with French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy over the thorny issue of asylum; detection procedures will now be introduced at several more French ports with direct travel to the UK.

Charles Clarke reached a deal on language training and better education links.