Ahern leaves open interest in presidency of EU council

FUTURE PLANS:TAOISEACH BERTIE Ahern has left open the possibility that he might be interested in being a candidate for the president of the European Council post that is due to be created next year if the Lisbon Treaty is passed.

Asked about his future intentions yesterday a day after he announced his decision to stand down in early May, Mr Ahern said he intended to think about his options over the summer months.

Asked if he was interested in the European post, he said: "It's the frying pan into the fire, I don't know. I'd certainly like to be even considered for a position like that, but I'd have to think about it.

"I'm 57 in September and over 30 years in political life working 80 hours a week. I don't regret a minute of it. But I'd have to think do you need that.

But I'll definitely do something; I just need to get my head around just what."

The president of the European Council, who could be appointed by EU leaders at the Christmas summit, or later, will chair meetings of EU leaders and serve a two-and-a-half year term.

He said he would always maintain "a passionate interest" in Northern Ireland.

He said he had spoken recently to former leader of the Labour Party, Pat Rabbitte, who had confessed to him that he had found leaving the party leadership to be harder than he had expected.

"Needless to say I was sounding him out. And he told me . . . he found the transformation far harder than he thought, because he came from being a very busy trade union official, a very successful one, a very successful politician, then to become leader of his party. And then I was talking to Tony Blair yesterday and he told me that he was busier than he ever was," he said.

"So it's a bit of an adjustment. But instead of watching the highlights of matches, I might be able to see the matches in future, so that would be very important."

He said he was confident that he had made the right decision to stand down now: "I'll be very honest about this. I made up my mind last year that if I won the election - and that sounded a very difficult thing for most of the campaign, let's be honest; I said I'd do two years and no more.

"My plan was to go to the local elections, but then we drifted over the recent months, and I'm not criticising and I've no argument with anyone. Everyone does their job. You all do your jobs, I appreciate that, and I like you all, I do. I've no bad feelings about anything."

However, he said he had "spent the last year doing everything except what I should be doing, so it's better to do it this way. So I see it as just a year earlier than I planned."

Mr Ahern said the 10th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement helped focus his thoughts on leaving office, leading him to ask himself, "Well, what am I around after this for? What do I do next?

"I concluded that this seems like the time to go . . . the most devastating thing for me yesterday which I didn't know when I sat down to say it to my colleagues was to see the whole place, bar one or two of them, crying.

"I said, 'I better get out of here before I cause any more problems'," he said.