The European Parliament president, Mr Pat Cox, has said he will announce on Wednesday whether he will seek re-election to the body in June's election. Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent, reports.
Mr Cox, an MEP for Munster - now called South - would not confirm or deny a weekend report that he has decided not to run again, but would like to be nominated by the Taoiseach to be Ireland's next EU Commissioner.
He said there had been "interpretations which are premature" in relation to whether he will run again. He was speaking on Saturday at a joint press conference in Dublin Castle with the Taoiseach as president of the European Council, and the Commission president, Mr Romano Prodi.
He said that on Wednesday he will chair the last plenary session of this parliament, and will then make his intentions clear. Asked if he would like the Taoiseach to give him the Commission job, he said: "Today the Taoiseach knows full well that I am here to do a job, not to get a job."
Mr Cox is seen in Brussels as Ireland's most effective European politician in recent years. However, the fact that he is a member of neither Government party make his nomination by Mr Ahern appear unlikely. Should he chose not to run, his withdrawal would increase Fianna Fáil's prospects of holding their two seats in the reduced three-seat South constituency.
Earlier Mr Cox attacked tabloid newspapers, particularly those in Britain, for concentrating the coverage of enlargement on the alleged threat of large-scale immigration. "I've been sickened at the reductionism of this wonderful moment of enlargement into tabloid headlines in so many places who should know better about floods of migrants, for example, when the only flood we have seen is a flood of tabloid ink and prejudice. We need to be quite clear that where there is prejudice we must confront it."