It was lame duck meets dead duck, but it looks like everybody had a good time:
"The chancellor and President Chirac were in agreement that the constitutional process must continue so that the views of each country are respected," German government spokesman Bela Anda told reporters after the two leaders met for dinner."It's not dead, it's pining for the fjords!" And the boys are going to give it mouth-to-mouth attention.
Meanwhile, his French counterpart Jerome Bonnafont said the talks "demonstrated a profound unity of views on what has happened in Europe and what must happen going forward".
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The two leaders know there is considerable scepticism about the ratification process continuing and are particularly concerned that Britain might declare the constitution dead before the EU summit in mid-June, our correspondent says.
They also discussed the EU budget covering 2007-2013.Ah, more fun ahead.
Germany, the biggest contributor to EU funds, wants Britain to make concessions over the budget rebate won by Margaret Thatcher in 1984.
But this would be politically explosive in the UK, our correspondent says.
