PORTO CARRAS (Greece), June 20: European Union leaders on Friday gave green light to the first draft constitution preparing for the bloc’s 2004 eastward expansion as well as a new security doctrine authorizing the use of force “as a last resort” against nations building clandestine weapons of mass destruction.

The draft treaty sought to simplify and streamline EU decision-making and institutions for an EU which as of May next year will grow from 15 to 25 countries.

The security paper meanwhile strived to show the world that the EU was determined to become a global player and had the means and the will to fight off threats to its security.

EU leaders meeting for summit talks in Porto Carras near Thessaloniki hailed former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing who headed a treaty-drafting convention, for his efforts to prepare the Union for the 21st Century. “This marks a historic step,” said a summit statement.

As of October, EU governments will now start their own negotiations on the contents of the treaty.

The new constitution will be signed shortly after May 1, 2004, when the EU will formally open its doors to 10 new members.

But even as the leaders hailed the draft, there were clear signs that the real struggles over the constitution were yet to come.

Battle lines are being drawn over proposals that the EU should have a permanent president of the European Council, a post which critics say could create competition for the president of the European Commission.

A further flashpoint is the plan for creating a two-class Commission in which only 15 members would be given the right to vote with the other 10 having no real power.

National vetoes are another sticking point. Britain insists on keeping a veto for tax matters while Germany wants no majority voting on immigration and asylum issues.

Meanwhile, in an equally significant move, the EU endorsed its first-ever secuirty doctrine providing for beefed up military force and diplomacy to tackle the bloc’s top three threats: terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and failed states.

The strategy paper formalizes the EU’s move into the security arena following creation of a 60,000-strong rapid reaction force this year. The first units of this force are currently serving in Macedonia and Congo.

The 10-page doctrine follows the bloc’s worst-ever divisions over the Iraq war earlier this year which led to accusations that the EU was a weak global player and incapable of running a common foreign and security policy.

Recognizing that the end of the Cold War has left the United States in a dominant military position, the 15-nation EU nevertheless insisted that no single country is able to tackle today’s complex problems entirely on its own.

But underlining the EU’s multilateralist approach, the bloc also stressed it wanted to forge strategic partnerships with Russia, Japan, China, Canada and India.

The Union must help create a “ring of well-governed countries” both to its east and south, said the paper adding that the EU had a special responsibility to ensure stability in the Balkans and the Middle East.