Tensions between Paris and London flared up on Sunday, October 23 amid crisis talks on the eurozone, as President Nicolas Sarkozy of France hit out at British criticisms of the single currency.

"You have lost a good opportunity to shut up,” the Guardian, a UK paper, reports the French leader as telling UK Prime Minister David Cameron. "We are sick of you criticizing us and telling us what to do. You say you hate the euro and now you want to interfere in our meetings."

The row centered on concerns by the UK leader that decisions taken solely by the eurozone members would have impact on the single market shared by all 27 euro and non-euro using members of the European Union.

The reported bust-up caused an hour-and-a-half delay to a joint press conference between Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel mid-afternoon.

In the end, the EU leaders reached a compromise that all 27 will first discuss the comprehensive eurozone crisis response package at a subsequent summit in Brussels on Wednesday, but that the eurozone chiefs themselves will have the last word on the matters at their own separate meeting immediately afterward, EUobserver reported.