The French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, has criticised European Union candidate states for their support of Washington's stance on Iraq.
The comments were made following yesterday's statement on Iraq where EU leaders stated force should only be used as a "last resort".
Mr Chirac said candidate countries "should have kept quiet." He was referring to a letter backing the United States signed by 10 former communist countries, seven of which are EU candidate states.
Singling out Romania and Bulgaria with a veiled threat to block their bids to join the EU in 2007, he said "if they really want to diminish their chances to join the EU then they couldn't find a better way of doing it".
But Bulgaria today rejected the criticism, saying it had not showed itself more in favour of US policy than France.
Bulgaria's deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Lubomir Ivanov, said Mr Chirac's attack "displayed some nervousness" and warned it could further divide the United Nations Security Council, of which Bulgaria is a non-permanent member.
The United States and Britain are now looking at ways to convince the UN Security Council to support a new resolution on Iraq following the EU statement.
But Europe remains divided on the key issue of how much time Baghdad should have to disarm. Britain - supported by Spain, Italy, Denmark and Portugal - said the time to disarm peacefully could not be open-ended.
The EU summit went some way towards meeting a challenge by Prime Minister Tony Blair to send a tough message to Saddam Hussein, saying this was his final chance to surrender any weapons of mass destruction.
A joint statement by the 15 leaders set no time limit on UN arms inspections in Iraq but said they could not go on indefinitely if Baghdad failed to provide full co-operation.
"Baghdad should have no illusions: it must disarm and cooperate immediately. It has a final opportunity to solve the crisis peacefully," the EU said in the statement.
The EU statement said the US-led military build-up in the Gulf region had been essential in achieving Iraqi co-operation.
But German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, long opposed to what he views as US President George W. Bush's rush towards war, said the statement had at his insistence omitted a warning that "time is rapidly running out" for Iraq.
French President Jacques Chirac, who also favours more time for inspections, made clear he would not support a new UN resolution at this stage authorising war against Baghdad if it did not comply soon, as Mr Bush and Mr Blair are seeking.
Mr Bush's preparations for possible war against Iraq suffered another setback when Turkey announced it would not ask its parliament to open military bases to US forces as it had previously said it would.