A faux –pas from the French President

Controversy follows the French President Nicolas Sarkozy the way a newshound follows a story about an actress and a bishop. This time he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "liar" in a private conversation with US President Barack Obama at the G20 conference in Cannes last week. He was overheard by journalists although it was not initially widely reported.

"I can't stand him any more, he's a liar," Mr Sarkozy said in French.

"You may be sick of him I have to deal with him every day," Mr Obama replied.

The French media have been silent about this exchange, reportedly not to embarrass the French President, although correspondent for Le Monde newspaper did referred to the conversation in passing and without the direct quotes.

Not so the Israeli press who have reported it in full and without thought to President Sarkozy's discomfort..

No such thing as a private conversation

Someone thought giving Journalists at the press conference translation boxes but asking them not to plug in their headphones until the private conversations in the backroom had finished was a good idea.

Journo’s, lets face it, are professional nosey parkers and you may as well ask a starving fox to look after the chickens.  I’m sure they tried to comply but those who gave in to their professional instincts heard the embarrassing comments.

We need to know more

Now this is all very interesting – but what we really want to know is what Netanyahu lied about? Think you know? In the absence of hard facts leave your suggestion in the comments box.

CM