Campaigners for gun control hailed the deal as a historic breakthrough, but the gun lobby said it would drive gun ownership underground and do little to stop future massacres. After a marathon meeting of federal and state police ministers in Canberra, John Howard, the Prime Minister, announced a ban on the import, sale, possession, manufacture and use of military-style self-loading guns and pump-action shotguns. In the wake of public outrage after the massacre of 35 people in Tasmania a fortnight ago, Australia's federal and state governments yesterday signed an agreement that will give Australia one of the world's toughest sets of rules on gun ownership. Imagine, therefore, Chancellor Kohl's surprise when he had to learn in March about the French defence reforms from the media.German leaders are still smarting from that debacle. In one swoop, France was doing away with its conscripted force, to replace it with a professional army which, for historic reasons, Germans of all shades mistrust.Although the Bundeswehr is finding it increasingly difficult to fill the annual quota of recruits, hiring soldiers for money is a subject no self-respecting politician dare broach in Bonn.Mr Chirac was doubtless going to reassure Chancellor Kohl last night that a decision of such importance would never again be taken behind Bonn's back, but the damage has already been done.Hampered by shrinking budgets and undermined by mutual mistrust, the Franco-German axis needs more lubricant than a short dinner between President Chirac and Chancellor Kohl can provide.. Chancellor Kohl was badgered into signing up for Helios at last year's summit with President Chirac in Baden-Baden, even though Germany is perfectly happy with current arrangements within the Nato framework.Mr Kohl may not be in such cordial mood this time.

After the Muroroa fiasco, when President Chirac failed to forewarn France's most important military ally about the nuclear tests, Paris pledged to improve communication links. Mr Ruhe is tempted to slash projects with the highest degree of symbolism but least military content.At the top of such a list would be Helios, the satellite designed to end Europe's dependence on US technology. President Jacques Chirac was expected to pay a courtesy call on Germany's Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, last night, in an apparent effort to soothe German nerves about impending French defence cuts. On Monday, the French cabinet is expected to finalise its five-year military-procurement programme, which Bonn fears may damage co-operation between the two countries. Mr Kohl is concerned in particular about three joint projects: a helicopter, a military transport craft and the Franco-German spy satellite, Helios.Faced with soaring budget deficits that threaten to scupper European Monetary Union in 1999, the two governments have recently adopted stringent cuts in public expenditure.The effects of these austerity measures are already becoming visible in France, as the vast conscription-based armed forces are slimmed down in the biggest upheaval of the defence sector since the war.In Germany, the Defence Minister, Volker Ruhe, must identify cuts amounting to several billion German marks by next month.

They include the Iberia and Aviaco airlines, Repsol petroleum company and the telecommunications group Telefonica. Mr Pique said these companies were a huge drain on state finances and there was no justification for maintaining them in the public sector.To keep an eagle eye on cost-cutting, the government yesterday created a Budget Office answerable to the Prime Minister headed by Jose Barea, 73, an economics professor.. Mr Rato, seeking to calm fears that already flagging economic growth could peter out under the impact of this latest blow, promised to introduce measures to encourage private investment.The Industry Minister, Josep Pique, a Catalan entrepreneur, plans to accelerate the privatisation process launched by the previous government and to hive off as soon as possible all public companies under his control. Details of where the cuts will fall are to be worked out over coming weeks and presented to parliament.Mr Rato's measures sent an icy blast through the Spanish state bureaucracy, which the ruling Popular Party considers to have become unnecessarily bloated throughout 13 years of Socialist government, during which employees in every other walk of life have grown accustomed to the rigours of "reconversion". "The government position is that Spain will and must meet the [European Union] convergence criteria."The urbane Mr Rato emerged as the steely nerved hero of two months of negotiations with the Catalan nationalists in pursuit of a ruling pact. Austerity measures form a cornerstone of the deal and - pour encourager les autres - Mr Rato has slashed his own ministerial staff by half. "We are imposing a rigorous policy of budget discipline," Mr Rato said after yesterday's cabinet meeting.

It slimmed down the machinery of government by killing off some 80 departments and agencies, and pruning top administrative posts by a third. The Vice-President and Economy Minister, Rodrigo Rato, nicknamed "Scissorhand", announced spending cuts of 200bn pesetas (pounds 1bn). Not just the farmbelt but much of the world is hoping it will last.. Spain's new conservative government yesterday approved a sweeping package of belt-tightening measures and privatisations that it says are necessary to keep the country on course for European monetary union in 1999. Just this week, the USDA designated Oklahoma a "primary disaster area", making small farmers eligible for government- subsidised loans - the one barrier to a repeat of the 1930s when banks foreclosed on bankrupt family farms by the thousands.But at last rain has come. The measure also provides protection for hoards of coins.Coroners' juries will no longer have to decide if an object was deliberately buried with the intention of being recovered - an often unprovable condition under existing law of a find's status as treasure - or simply lost..