Major `could have done without it'

LONDON - The British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, said yesterday he believed the latest European Union summit was practically…

LONDON - The British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, said yesterday he believed the latest European Union summit was practically a waste of time with little useful emerging from the one day informal gathering.

"We could have done without it," Mr Major told BBC television.

"In many ways, we were there because we were there because we were there," he said. "Having said that, there was some useful preparatory work done, some things useful did come out of it, but not a great deal."

The British government has barely disguised its feeling that the summit was unwelcome because of fears it could ignite Euroscepticism in Mr Major's own Conservative Party just before its annual conference.