"Democracy is the meeting point for Europe and America", Tony Blair claimed last night.

In a speech to a City audience the prime minister insisted that Britain and Europe had a duty to join with the US in combating terror.

"If America were to pull up the drawbridge, retreat from its obligations and alliances abroad, the terrorists would attack the rest of us," he said.

"They are not interested in America as America. They are interested in America as the most powerful actor in pursuit of beliefs they fear as much as we value them."

His comments came on the day it was announced that US secretary of state Colin Powell had resigned.

Powell has been seen as one of the leading multilateralists in the Bush administration.

Meanwhile, Jacques Chirac has claimed the prime minister has not won anything for supporting the war against Iraq.

Speaking to British journalists before he visits London on Thursday, the French president said: "Well, Britain gave its support but I did not see anything in return. I'm not sure it is in the nature of our American friends at the moment to return favours systematically."

He added: "It is like that nice guy in America — what's his name again? — who spoke about 'old Europe'. It has no sense. It's a lack of culture to imagine that. Imagining that there can be division between the British and French vision of Europe is as absurd as imagining that we are building Europe against the United States."