World

BEIJING — China will pay the biggest price from the new UN sanctions against North Korea because of its close economic relationship with the country, but will always enforce the resolutions, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

The UN Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Saturday over its continued missile tests that could slash the reclusive country's $3 billion annual export revenue by a third.

Speaking at a regional security forum in Manila on Monday, Wang said the new resolution showed China and the international community's opposition to North Korea's continued missile tests, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Owing to China's traditional economic ties with North Korea, it will mainly be China paying the price for implementing the resolution," the statement cited Wang as saying.

"But in order to protect the international non-proliferation system and regional peace and stability, China will, as before, fully and strictly properly implement the entire contents of the relevant resolution."

 China, North Korea's lone major ally, has repeatedly said it is committed to enforcing increasingly tough UN resolutions on North Korea, though it has also said what it terms "normal" trade and ordinary North Koreans should not be affected.

The latest UN resolution bans North Korean exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. It also prohibits countries from increasing the numbers of North Korean labourers currently working abroad, bans new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.

"What this is going to do is send a very strong message and a united message," US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told NBC's "Today" programme in an interview on Tuesday, adding that Washington would be watching to see the sanctions are enforced.

US President Donald Trump praised other nations for addressing North Korea's missile programme.

"After many years of failure, countries are coming together to finally address the dangers posed by North Korea. We must be tough & decisive!," Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.

Haley said Trump was keeping "all options on the table" for dealing with North Korea and speaking of its leader, Kim Jong-un, said "he has to decide if he strikes the United States, is that something he can win?"

 North Korea has made no secret of its plans to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the United States, and has ignored international calls to halt its nuclear and missile programmes.

North Korea says its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are a legitimate means of defence against perceived US hostility. It has long accused the United States and South Korea of escalating tensions by conducting military drills.

Door to discussions?

Wang said that apart from the new sanctions, the resolution also made clear that the six-party talks process, a stalled dialogue mechanism with North Korea that also includes Russia and Japan, should be restarted.

China appreciated comments earlier this month by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that the United States was not seeking to topple the North Korean government and would like dialogue with Pyongyang at some point, Wang added.

The United States did not seek regime change, the collapse of the regime, an accelerated reunification of the peninsula or an excuse to send the US military into North Korea, Tillerson said.

Wang said Tillerson's "Four Nos" promise was a positive signal.

China "hopes North Korea can echo this signal from the United States", Wang added.

Speaking at the same forum on Monday, Tillerson held a door open for dialogue with North Korea saying Washington was willing to talk to Pyongyang if it halted its missile test launches.

Still, he maintained the pressure on North Korea, pressing Thailand on Tuesday for more action against Pyongyang.

North Korea said the sanctions infringed its sovereignty and it was ready to give Washington a "severe lesson" with its strategic nuclear force in response to any US military action.

The successful testing of two ICBMs last month suggested the reclusive North was making technical progress, Japan's annual Defence White Paper warned.

"Since last year, when it forcibly implemented two nuclear tests and more than 20 ballistic missile launches, the security threats have entered a new stage," the Japanese defence ministry said in the 563-page document released on Tuesday.

"It is conceivable that North Korea's nuclear weapons programme has already considerably advanced and it is possible that North Korea has already achieved the miniaturisation of nuclear weapons and has acquired nuclear warheads," it said.

South Korea reiterated further resolutions against Pyongyang could follow if it did not pull back. 

"North Korea should realise if it doesn't stop its nuclear, missile provocations, it will face even stronger pressure and sanctions," Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a regular news briefing. "We warn North Korea not to test or misunderstand the will of the South Korea-US alliance." 

PARIS — More than 220,000 people have signed a petition against French President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to create a formal First Lady role for his wife Brigitte. 

Unlike the US First Lady, the wife of the French president does not have a formal role, although they are often informal champions for charitable causes. Past presidential wives have had small teams working for them at the Elysee presidential palace. 

During his election campaign, Macron said he wanted to create a formal role for the French First Lady, with her own office and staff. 

He has made clear the First Lady should not receive a public salary, but many French people say they see his plan as an “Americanisation” of their politics.

The issue comes as the French parliament, dominated by Macron’s party, pushes through reforms that would make it illegal for members to provide paid jobs for their relatives.

One of Macron’s main rivals in the presidential election, conservative challenger Francois Fillon, saw his campaign derailed by allegations he paid his wife public money for fictitious work as a parliamentary assistant. 

“They are asking members of parliament and senators not to employ their spouses but they make an exception for the wife of Emmanuel Macron. That is contradictory,” Thierry Paul Valette, who launched the petition against First Lady status for Brigitte Macron on change.org, told Reuters. 

According to a Yougov poll published by the Huffington Post in May, 68 per cent of French people were against the creation of a formal First Lady post. 

An Elysee spokesman said the First Lady’s position would be defined in a charter which is being drafted. Brigitte Macron, who receives about 200 letters per day, already has a staff of four.

MANILA — Southeast Asian foreign ministers ended an impasse on Sunday over how to address disputes with China in the South China Sea, issuing a communique that called for militarisation to be avoided and noting concern about island-building.

The South China Sea has long been the most divisive issue for the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), with China's influence looming large over its activities. Some countries are wary about the possible repercussions of defying Beijing by taking a stronger stand.

ASEAN failed to issue the customary statement on Saturday, over what diplomats said was disagreement about whether to make oblique references to China's rapid expansion of its defence capabilities on artificial islands in disputed waters.

China is sensitive to even a veiled reference by ASEAN to its seven reclaimed reefs, three of which have runways, missile batteries, radars and, according to some experts, the capability to accommodate fighter jets.

The communique late on Sunday takes a stronger position than an earlier, unpublished draft, which was a watered-down version of one issued last year in Laos.

The agreed text "emphasised the importance of non-militarisation and self-restraint".

It said that after extensive discussions, concerns were voiced by some members about land reclamation "and activities in the area which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tension and may undermine peace, security and stability". 

ASEAN's deadlock over the statement highlights China's growing influence on the grouping at a time of uncertainty over the new US administration's security priorities and whether it will try to keep China's maritime activities in check.

Several ASEAN diplomats said that among the members who pushed for a communique that retained the more contentious elements was Vietnam, which has competing claims with China over the Paracel and Spratly Archipelago and has had several spats with Beijing over energy concessions. 

Another diplomat, however, said there was no real disagreement on the contents of the communique and stressed that the initial draft was seen by some members as weak. 

Also on Sunday the foreign ministers of ASEAN and China adopted a negotiating framework for a code of conduct in the South China Sea, a move they hailed as progress but seen by critics as a tactic to buy China time to consolidate its maritime power.

MANILA — Southeast Asian foreign ministers failed to release a customary communique at the end of a high-level meeting on Saturday after what diplomats said was a lack of consensus about how to refer to disputes in the South China Sea.

The South China Sea has long been the most thorny issue for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with different opinions among its 10 members on how to address China's assertiveness and its building and heavy arming of its artificial islands in disputed waters.

Philippine Foreign Ministry spokesman Robespierre Bolivar gave no reason for the delay and said the statement would instead be released at the end of a series of regional events hosted by Manila in the next few days.

"The communique will be issued together with all the chairman's statements by the end of all the meetings," he said.

ASEAN's problem in agreeing the wording highlight China's growing influence at a time of uncertainty whether the new US administration will prioritise relations with ASEAN, and try to check Beijing's controversial maritime activities.

Diplomats from three ASEAN countries said the delay was because Vietnam, which is among four members with competing sovereignty claims with China, wanted the text to mention the need to avoid land reclamation and militarisation. 

A working draft of the communique seen on Thursday was a watered-down version of one issued last year and drops references to both.

China is extremely sensitive about ASEAN mentioning its expansion of its military capabilities on those islands and some members are concerned about possible repercussions of upsetting Beijing given its military and economic power.

Three of China's seven reclaimed reefs have runways several kilometres long, radar, surface-to-air missiles and storage facilities for fighter jets.

"It's only Vietnam holding out. Maybe, by tomorrow everything will be ironed out," said one diplomat involved in the drafting process.

Global threat

What ASEAN countries could on Saturday agree on was that tensions on the Korean peninsula stemming from North Korean long-range missile tests seriously threaten global peace and security.

Taking a stronger tone than previous statements on the stand-off, they called for North Korea to comply with United Nations Security Council resolutions on its nuclear programme, and make a positive contribution to regional peace.

North Korea's tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles, are expected to dominate Monday's ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which gathers 27 foreign ministers — including those of Russia, Japan, the United States, China and North and South Korea — to discuss security issues.

North Korea is determined to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and officials in Washington say its latest test a week ago showed it may be able to reach most of the country.

"We strongly call upon [North Korea] as a participant of the ASEAN Regional Forum, to positively contribute to realise the ARF vision to maintain the Asia-Pacific as a region of lasting peace, stability, friendship and prosperity," ASEAN said.

The ASEAN position is short of the tougher line urged by the United States, which wanted it to downgrade relations with the already isolated nation. 

MANILA — Southeast Asian ministers meeting this week are set to avoid tackling the subject of Beijing's arming and building of manmade South China Sea islands, preparing to endorse a framework for a code of conduct that is neither binding nor enforceable. 

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has omitted references to China's most controversial activities in its joint communique, a draft reviewed by Reuters shows.

In addition, a leaked blueprint for establishing an ASEAN-China code of maritime conduct does not call for it to be legally binding, or seek adherence to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The two drafts highlight China's growing regional clout at a time of uncertainty whether the new US administration will try to check Beijing's assertiveness in the disputed waters.

The South China Sea chapter in the latest draft communique, a negotiated text subject to changes, is a watered-down version of one issued in Laos last year.

ASEAN expressed "serious concern" in that text, and "emphasised the importance of non-militarisation and self-restraint in all activities, including land reclamation".

 But the latest text calls for avoidance of "unilateral actions in disputed features" instead. 

The role of the Philippines as 2017 chair of ASEAN has helped China keep a lid on discord.

Once ASEAN's most vocal critic of China's conduct, the Philippines, under President Rodrigo Duterte, has put aside disputes in exchange for Chinese funding pledges of $24 billion.

ASEAN ties with the United States, under President Donald Trump, have been in flux, as questions linger over Washington's commitment to maritime security and trade in Asia, diminishing the grouping's bargaining power with Beijing.

A legally binding and enforceable code of conduct has been a goal for ASEAN's claimant members — Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam — since a 2002 pact to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight and leave rocks and reefs uninhabited.

That pact, the Declaration of Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea, has been largely ignored, particularly by China, which reclaimed seven reefs and can now deploy combat planes on three, besides defence systems already in place.

China's foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday that China was willing to work with ASEAN to maintain the "hard won" stability in the South China Sea and steadily push forward with talks on the code of conduct. 

Analysts and some ASEAN diplomats worry that China's sudden support for negotiating a code of conduct is a ploy to buy time to further boost its military capability.

"We could have done more to push China to agree to a much stronger document, holding claimant states more accountable," said one ASEAN diplomat.

The agreed two-page framework is broad and leaves wide scope for disagreement, urging a commitment to the "purposes and principles" of UNCLOS, for example, rather than adherence.

The framework papers over the big differences between ASEAN nations and China, said Patrick Cronin of the Centre for a New American Security. 

"Optimists will see this non-binding agreement as a small step forward, allowing habits of cooperation to develop, despite differences," he said.

"Pessimists will see this as a gambit favourable to a China determined to make the majority of the South China Sea its domestic lake."

Consensus constraints

Diplomats say ASEAN's requirement of consensus in decision making allows China to pressure some members to disagree with proposals it dislikes. China has long denied interfering.

A separate ASEAN document, dated May and seen by Reuters, shows that Vietnam pushed for stronger, more specific text. 

Vietnam sought mention of respect for "sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction" not only in accordance with international law, but more specifically, UNCLOS.

Sovereign rights cover entitlements to fish and extract natural resources.

Experts say the uncertain future US commitment to Asia leaves Vietnam in the most exposed position, as it has competing claims with China and relies on imports from its neighbour.

Opposition by China has repeatedly disrupted Vietnam's efforts to exploit offshore energy reserves, most recently in an area overlapping what Beijing considers its oil concessions. 

The code of conduct framework was useful to build confidence, said Philippine security expert Rommel Banlaoi, but was not enough to manage and prevent conflict in the South China Sea.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in goods pass every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump reluctantly signed off on new sanctions against Russia Wednesday, bowing to domestic pressure and putting efforts to improve ties with the Kremlin on ice.

Trump signed the legislation behind closed doors and away from the cameras, after failed efforts to scupper or water down the bill.

Trump’s reluctance was on full display in an angry signing statement, in which he called the legislation “significantly flawed”.

 “In its haste to pass this legislation, the Congress included a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions,” he said, including curbs on the president’s ability to conduct foreign policy.

The legislation — which also includes measures against North Korea and Iran — targets the Russian energy sector, giving Washington the ability to sanction companies involved in developing Russian pipelines, and placing curbs on some Russian weapons exporters.

It also notably constrains Trump’s ability to waive the penalties, a statement of mistrust from the Republican controlled Congress which remains unsettled by Trump’s warm words for President Vladimir Putin.

The sanctions seek to penalize the Kremlin for meddling in the 2016 US presidential election — which Trump won — and Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Trump said he would “honour” some of the bill’s provisions, but stopped short of saying it would be fully implemented.

The White House said only that Trump would give Congress’s “preferences” mere “careful and respectful consideration.”

 Trump received the legislation at 1:53 pm on Friday and waited until Wednesday to sign it.

The nearly week-long delay in signing had raised speculation that Trump might veto or try to somehow shelve the sanctions, which were approved in a 98-2 Senate vote.

By signing it, he avoided the humiliating prospect of Congress overriding his veto. 

Expecting the signature, Moscow preemptively ordered Washington to reduce its diplomatic presence in Russia to 455 persons before September 1 — bringing it in line with the size of Russia’s mission in the US.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday he will meet with his Russian opposite Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over the weekend, but warned US-Russia ties could still get worse.

“The question, I think, of the events of the last week or so, is it getting worse or can we maintain some level of stability in that relationship?” Tillerson asked.

Tillerson said the US Congress’s decision to pass the sanctions bill had made attempts to thaw ties “more difficult”.

A special prosecutor is investigating whether Trump advisers colluded with what US intelligence has concluded was an attempt by Russia to covertly support his 2016 campaign.

The US president, who often called for warmer ties with Moscow during the White House race, has furiously denied the charge, which has further clouded relations.

PARIS — Sitting in rows on a grassy embankment overlooking a Paris square, around 50 asylum-seekers recite the alphabet in French following a young woman pointing to letters on a whiteboard.

"Ew", 22-year-old Louise shouts, attempting to make herself heard above the passing traffic and the music spilling out of a nearby bar.

"Ooh!" comes the reply from the group of mostly Sudanese and Afghan youths, struggling to pronounce the tricky French “u”.

The migrants are attending free open-air language classes organised by a refugee support group at a dozen locations around the French capital.

On a warm July evening two classes are under way on the banks of the Bassin de la Villette, part of the canals in northeast Paris near where migrants are often found sleeping rough.

While Louise, who did not wish to give her full name, teaches beginners, Pierre Piacentini, a retired nurse, instructs Level 2 students on how to describe the various ailments they may find themselves explaining to a doctor.

Many in Piacentini's group are regulars at the daily classes, who show up come rain or shine.

"They were here when it was -5oC, they're here when it rains, when it's hot, when they have the sun in their faces. They're really into it basically," the energetic, white-haired volunteer said.

A rare sight anywhere in the world in the 21st century, the teaching taking place under the trees in Paris causes passers-by to stop and stare.

Founded in November 2015 at the height of the migrant crisis in Europe, the association BAAM aims to give asylum-seekers some of the support withheld by the state while their asylum claims are being processed.

That includes language classes, with the French government only offering lessons to people who have received refugee status.

"The problem is that the asylum processing times are very long. People want to learn French and they can't," complained Julian Mez, one of the founders of BAAM (French acronym for Office of Reception and Assistance for Migrants). He accused the state of holding up the integration process.

From street to school 

President Emmanuel Macron, elected in May, has promised to cut the waiting times for asylum claims from around 18 months at present to six months. 

By the time the changes take effect the Level 2 students may have graduated on to the subjunctive tense.

Omar, a 28-year-old Sudanese, began classes nine months ago. Before, he said, he knew "nothing".

"Now, I speak well," he said proudly, in correct French.

On the evening AFP visited the students were learning the vocabulary for the various parts of the body.

"I've got a pain in my back," Piacentini tells the class, pressing a hand to his lower back and wincing with mock agony.

The students, all males aged between 15 and 30, repeat the sentence in unison and jot it down diligently on notebooks balanced on their knees.

The open-air classroom in the multi-ethnic Stalingrad neighbourhood in northeast Paris is next to an overhead metro line under which a sprawling migrant camp sprouted up last year. 

In November, police cleared the camp that was home to over 3,000 people and an official shelter was opened nearby, but migrants from across Africa, the Middle East and Asia continue to arrive.

For those who attend the classes, France is the destination and not merely a transit point on the well-worn route to England via the port of Calais.

Hissan, a 27-year-old Egyptian in the beginners' class, roamed for years around Europe before deciding to settle in Paris.

He has found work in construction and can understand a lot of French. "But I cannot speak it," he said ruefully in English.

 'Like a drug' 

Besides teaching French, BAAM's volunteers help migrants negotiate France's byzantine bureaucracy and complete forms.

Piacentini has been teaching every day for nine months. "It's like a drug," he says, laughing.

It is a steep learning curve both for teacher and pupil, as he discovered one day during a class about family. 

Amazed that all the Sudanese students, when asked to list their siblings, mentioned only their brothers, he asked: "Don't you have any sisters?" 

Later, one of the students took him aside and told him that it was inappropriate to ask Sudanese men about female relatives.

KABUL — A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Iraqi embassy in Kabul on Monday and militants breached the compound, Afghan officials said, in a complex hours-long attack claimed by the Daesh terror group. 

All the attackers had been killed and the compound secured roughly four hours after the assault began, Afghanistan's interior ministry said, adding that all embassy staff were safe and only one policeman wounded "slightly". 

There were conflicting reports about how the attack unfolded. The interior ministry said at least four militants had attacked the embassy, beginning with a suicide bomber who detonated his vest at the compound entrance. 

"The quick-response police forces arrived in time and evacuated the Iraqi diplomats to safe place. No embassy staff have been harmed, only one policeman was wounded slightly," a ministry statement said.

An Afghan security official at the site of the attack and a number of witnesses however suggested the attackers were dropped by a car nearby, who then stormed the Iraqi embassy building with hails of bullets, before penetrating and detonating themselves inside.

Black smoke billowed into the air above the neighbourhood in northwestern Kabul as the sound of gunfire, blasts and ambulance sirens could be heard. Panicked residents, including women and children, could be seen fleeing the area.

The Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad said the charge d'affairs was among those evacuated and that it was monitoring the situation with Afghan authorities, without giving further details.

The Afghanistan affiliate of the Daesh group claimed responsiblity for the attack, according to a statement by its propaganda agency Amaq. It said two of its members attacked the embassy killing at least 27 guards and other embassy staff.

The militant group is known to often exaggerate its claims on the number of causalities inflicted. 

The Iraqi embassy is located in northwestern Kabul, in a neighbourhood that is home to several hotels and banks as well as large supermarkets and several police compounds.

"I heard a big blast followed by several explosions and small gunfire," said Ahmad Ali, a nearby shopkeeper.

"People were worried and closed their shops to run for safety. The roads are still blocked by security forces."

 The attack is the latest to rock Kabul, which is regularly devastated by bomb blasts and militant assaults, often killing many civilians. 

The resurgent Taliban claim many of the attacks as they step up their bid to drive out foreign forces with a series of assaults across the country. 

But Daesh, recently ousted from the Iraqi city of Mosul, have been expanding their footprint in eastern Afghanistan and have claimed responsibility for several devastating attacks in Kabul.

‘We will hunt
them down' 

First emerging in 2015, the group's local affiliate Daesh Khorasan Province (IS-K), overran large parts of eastern Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, near the Pakistan border, where they engaged in a turf war with the Taliban.

US forces in Afghanistan have repeatedly targeted the group, killing its head Abu Sayed and several senior advisers in a July 11 strike in Kunar, the Pentagon has said. 

The decision to deploy the so-called Mother Of All Bombs also targeted Daesh hideouts in Nangarhar, according to the Afghan defence ministry, though fighting in the area has continued.

Pentagon officials say the group now numbers fewer than 1,000 in Afghanistan.

"We will be relentless in our campaign against IS-K. There are no safe havens in Afghanistan," said General John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, in a statement Sunday confirming some of the deaths in the July 11 strike.

The group is believed to be on the back foot in the Middle East, where analysts have said it has lost more than 60 per cent of its territory and 80 per cent of its revenue, three years after declaring its self-styled "caliphate" across swathes of Iraq and Syria. 

But analysts said Monday's attack in Kabul would be seen as a warning to Baghdad after it pushed Daesh out of Mosul.

"[IS] wants to send a message to many states, not just to Iraq, to prove that it is present everywhere... particularly after the victories of the Iraqi security forces in Mosul," said Issam Al Fili, a professor of Political Sciences at the Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad.

"Attacking embassies is part of the strategy of this kind of group, because embassies represent a strong symbol for the affected states," he said, adding that the attack would not have come as a "surprise" to Baghdad.

PARIS — France announced on Monday it would open two shelters for migrants sleeping rough around the Port of Calais, relenting to pressure to improve the lot of hundreds of people hiding from police.

The centres will be located in the towns of Troisvaux and Bailleul, situated about 80 kilometres inland from Calais, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said.

Each will have a capacity of 300, he told reporters, estimating the number of migrants currently in the northern port at between 350 and 400.

His announcement came hours after France's highest administrative court ordered the state to provide running water and sanitation for the migrants, saying that its refusal so far to do so "exposed them to inhuman and degrading treatment".

 The council of state was ruling on an appeal by the interior ministry and the city of Calais against an injunction issued by a court in Lille last month.

In its decision on Monday the council of state upheld the order sought by a group of charities, saying that migrants were developing skin diseases such as scabies and festering wounds as they had no way of washing themselves or their clothes. 

The situation was causing "serious psychological problems", it added, calling the state's failure to address the situation "a serious and clearly illegal blow to a basic right".

Calais' Mayor Natacha Bouchart said she would ignore the order.

"The decision by the council of state is unfair to the people of Calais because it threatens them with the emergence of yet another Jungle," she said, referring to the sprawling migrant camp from which over 6,000 people were evacuated last year.

"In the absence of a national and European policy offering a global solution on controlling immigration, Calais will not implement the injunctions," she declared in a statement.

Collomb too had argued that the provision of services could have a pull effect on migrants who trek across Europe to Calais in the hope of stowing away on a truck crossing the Channel to England.

On Monday, the minister said that the addition of two new shelters to the around 450 already in operation around the country would help speed up the processing of asylum claims from those migrants who wished to stay in France.

'Individual excesses' 

"We do not want to repeat the bad experiences of the past," he warned, alluding to the squalid Jungle.

He also announced an internal police investigation into claims of excessive force being used by officers against the migrants in Calais.

In a report entitled "Like living in hell" Human Rights Watch last week accused the police of routinely using pepper spray on asylum seekers and migrants.

Collomb said the security forces did not use pepper spray but he did not rule out "excesses by a few individuals".

France's new centrist government has taken an ambivalent line on migration.

During his campaign President Emmanuel Macron was fulsome in his praise of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy but his government has taken a tough line with migrants in Calais.

Last week, Macron softened the tone somewhat, promising to find temporary shelters for all those on the streets by the end of the year.

KONSTANZ, Germany — A gunman opened fire at a packed nightclub in southern Germany early on Sunday, killing one and wounding four before being shot by police, authorities said, in an attack likely motivated by a personal feud.

The 34-year-old man, identified as an Iraqi national, "was critically injured in a shootout with police officers as he left the disco, and later succumbed to his wounds in hospital”, police said in a statement.

"Investigations are ongoing into the background of the act, which was likely linked to a dispute in the attacker's personal life. There are no indications of a terror act," police added.

The foreign gunman was not an asylum seeker and has been living in the Constance region, which borders Switzerland, for 15 years.

Officers began receiving emergency calls from terrified clubbers at around 4:30am (0230 GMT) as the man began shooting in the nightclub heaving with "several hundred" people, said police.

One person was killed on the spot and three others seriously wounded in the club called "Grey", located in an industrial zone of the city, which draws Swiss revellers during the weekends.

Shortly after the gunman left the building, he was shot by police. One officer was also injured in the exchange of fire.

Frightened revellers had either fled the building or found a place to hide, police said, adding that the danger was now over.

Helicopters were circling overhead and special forces were also deployed to secure the site.

'Club was jam-packed' 

A witness told national news agency DPA that the attacker was shooting randomly at clubbers around him.

"The club was jam-packed," added the unnamed man, who said he had seen the attacker and fled quickly with his friends.

Another unnamed clubber was quoted by Suedkurier daily that he was in the washroom when someone came in and closed the toilet door saying there was shooting.

"I didn't believe it and went out. But I heard shots and quickly ran back to the toilet and closed the door with another person. With us was a bouncer who was shot and he was bandaging the wound with a belt," said the witness.

A bartender then opened the emergency exit door, allowing revellers to flee, he said, adding that he saw another person with a wound in the leg lying on the grass by the parking lot.

"I just shouted at everyone to run and when we were in the parking lot, we heard shots again," he said.

Police was unable to confirm the type of weapon used, but Bezikofer said it was "not just a pistol, the talk is of a long weapon or an automatic pistol".

The shooting came just two days after Germany was shaken by a knife attack in the northern port city of Hamburg.

A 26-year-old Palestinian had killed one and injured six in an assault at a supermarket.

He was a known Islamist with psychological problems, and investigators say his motives remain unclear.

Germany has been on high alert about the threat of an extremist attack, especially since last December's truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market that claimed 12 lives.

But it has also been hit by other assaults unrelated to the extremist threat.

Among the deadliest in recent years is a Munich shopping mall rampage last June by 18-year-old German-Iranian man which left 10 people dead including the gunman himself.