Was France's president Nicolas Sarkozy the worse for wear after a long meeting with Vladimir Putin at the G8 summit last week? Based on Sarkozy's erratic performance at a subsequent press conference - now a YouTube sensation in France - the experience may have gone to his head.
In this clip from Belgian television station La Deux, the newsreader wonders if Sarkozy had only been drinking water during his meeting with Putin. Some may have been forgiven for thinking otherwise, as footage of the press conference shows Sarkozy grinning inanely and struggling for words, while swaying gently, breathing heavily and gripping the podium - a far cry from Sarkozy's usual tightly-controlled public image.
"Ladies and gentlemen - please excuse me for being late," begins Sarkozy with an unnerving smile, "due to, er, my long discussion with Mr Putin." Sarkozy then laughs, takes a few deep breaths and gives a Gallic shrug while smiling at a secret joke. "So, what do you want? Me to answer questions?" he continues, grinning at the bemused journalists. "So, are there any questions? Go ahead, yeah, er..." he mumbles, before fiddling with his ear piece and shrugging again, leaning forward on the podium.
The rest of the press conference continues in a slightly better vein - although it is not recorded if Sarkozy declared that the Russian president was his "best mate ever" or went out for a kebab with Putin afterwards.
According to the European television website EUX, the question should be: "Was it an upset stomach or was it the vodka?" French television initially failed to show the clip, but the huge interest shown on YouTube led it to change tack, and Le Monde has written about "La video controversee de Nicolas Sarkozy au G8".
