20 June 2004	Sunday	01 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

BRUSSELS, June 19: European Union leaders adopted a historic first constitution for a united Europe on Friday, ending months of tortuous negotiation over power-sharing in a bloc that now spans the former Iron Curtain.

The accord on a constitution for the newly enlarged 25-nation EU of 450 million citizens was a welcome relief for leaders who suffered a wave of public apathy and Euroscepticism in last week's European Parliament elections.

But the risk of rejection by any one of several member states due to hold referendums, especially Britain, could still sink the charter, on which outstanding disputes were settled at the end of a two-day summit.

Relief over the deal was tempered by failure to agree on a new president for the executive European Commission.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, holder of the rotating EU presidency, postponed the decision after an ill-tempered debate between rival camps but said he hoped to find a nominee before his term in the chair ends on June 30.

"This is a fundamental advance for the European Union," a jubilant Ahern told a midnight news conference after the 25 presidents and prime ministers toasted the constitution deal with champagne.

Ahern's fellow leaders gave him a standing ovation for having resurrected treaty negotiations that collapsed last December under inept Italian leadership, and steered them to success through Dublin's six-month presidency.

The constitution will give the bloc stronger leadership with a long-term president of the European Council and a foreign minister to represent it on the world stage, more powers for the European Parliament and more decisions taken by majority vote.

It is also meant to make the bloc's complex and remote institutions easier for citizens to understand.

REARGUARD BATTLE: Britain fought a successful rearguard battle to preserve national vetoes on key policy areas such as taxation, social security, foreign and defence policy and criminal law.

France, Germany and the Netherlands found a last-minute compromise on how the EU's much-flouted budget deficit rules should be policed.

But Poland and other Roman Catholic countries failed to secure a reference to Europe's Christian heritage.

Simmering acrimony among the key players flared when British Prime Minister Tony Blair fired a broadside at the leaders of France and Germany, telling them they did not run Europe alone or with some inner circle.

"We are operating in a Europe of 25...not six or two or one," Blair's official spokesman told reporters.

Blair and several other leaders blocked the Franco-German candidate for the top EU job, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, at a tense summit dinner on Thursday night that revived the splits of the Iraq war.

Paris and Berlin resisted the alternative candidate put forward by EU conservative and Christian Democratic leaders - British EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten.

Verhofstadt announced his withdrawal after failing to win majority support and Ahern said both candidates were now out of the race.

Diplomats said the standoff had reopened bitter divisions within the bloc, pitting supporters of a more federal EU against those who want a Europe of nation states.

Britain opposed Verhofstadt because of his federalist view of EU integration and his anti-American stance over Iraq.

Centre-right Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, mentioned by some participants as a possible compromise figure, made known he was not available, as did Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker.

No clear front-runner was left in the frame and some diplomats said Ahern himself might win broad support, although he too has denied any interest in the post.

CHIRAC STIRS ANGER: Several delegations voiced anger at Mr Chirac's insistence the successful contender should come from a country with long EU experience that was in all the main European policy initiatives, notably the euro single currency and Schengen open-border area.

That could rule out anyone from Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and the 10 mainly East European states which joined on May 1, reuniting Europe after its Cold War division.

The final compromise on the constitution toughened the conditions for taking decisions by majority vote in a series of concessions to small and medium-sized states, notably Spain and Poland which sank the first attempt at agreement last year.

Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka declared victory after winning an extra clause that will allow countries that are narrowly outvoted to be able to call a cooling-off period to seek a broader consensus on an issue.

Most decisions will require the agreement of 55 percent of member states comprising at least 15 countries, representing 65 percent of the EU population.-Reuters