EU: Talks between conservative European Union leaders failed to overcome disagreements about the shape of the bloc's planned constitution, the French Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin, and his Italian counterpart, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, said yesterday.
Mr Raffarin hosted a meeting of conservative representatives from across Europe, including the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar, who is strongly opposed to a draft European Union constitution whose main supporters include France and Germany.
"There can be some changes to the Convention \, but we hope they will be limited and based on consensus. Important advances have been made, but there remains work to be done," Mr Raffarin said.
Mr Berlusconi, whose country currently holds the rotating EU Presidency, said differences remained on a number of key issues: voting arrangements, the make-up of the EU Commission and common European defence.
"It's easy and it's difficult. It's not so easy and still I think it's not so difficult," he said. "We are still working at it and we are still optimistic."
Mr Aznar was not present at the brief news conference.
Mr Berlusconi noted that he was due to meet a number of EU leaders, including the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, in a round of last-minute diplomacy before a crucial summit on December 12th-13th in Brussels.
EU leaders hope next week to finalise a constitution meant to overhaul institutions before 10 new members join the existing 15 next May, moving the EU's borders eastwards and swelling its population to 450 million.
Time is running out to resolve differences over a voting system adopted in 2000 which gives some countries voting power disproportionate to their population. Spain and Poland, which benefit from the system, want it maintained.
The draft EU constitution which was drawn up by the convention chaired by the former French president, Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, proposes a simpler "double majority" voting system.
Under its rules, most decisions would require a simple majority of states that also represent 60 per cent of the EU population.
France wants rapid approval of the draft text, which would give more influence to the bigger EU states.