PARIS (Reuters) - The Sun has opened a new front in a war of words with France over Iraq by attacking Jacques Chirac on his own turf in an edition handed out free in Paris that depicted the president as a giant worm

Many French broadcasters adopted a tone of bemused familiarity with the "frog-bashing" antics of the British press. One called it a cheap publicity stunt, noting that the special edition was not actually for sale in the French capital

Echoing a line used last week by U.S. tabloid the New York Post, also owned by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, the Sun recalled the sacrifices British and American soldiers made for France in two world wars. The Post made waves in France with a front-page photograph of American war graves in Normandy.

"British people feel Mr Chirac...is arrogantly strutting about trying to make France seem more important in the world than it really is. Are you not ashamed of your president?" the Sun asked, calling Chirac a hypocrite because in the end, it speculated, he would back down and support military action.