EU battles to save summit facing 'failure'

A planned resumption of formal talks was abruptly delayed, as Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi locked himself into intensive head-to-head talks with his EU counterparts on the historic charter for the enlarging Union.

A steady Brussels drizzle reflected the gloom gathering in the pink-granite Council of Ministers building, with two years of constitution-making hinging on the high-stakes brinkmanship.

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But by late morning delegations were still waiting to receive compromise proposals promised by the maverick Italian leader to unblock the big issue holding up agreement -- national voting rights.

"The fact that we have no paper this morning is a strong sign that we are moving towards failure," said one diplomat.

"We don't think there will be a paper or any meeting before this afternoon," said another EU official, confirming that the planned morning resumption of joint talks had been abandoned.

At stake is a landmark treaty designed to get the EU's creaking institutions in shape for its biggest enlargement yet, with 10 more countries due to join on May 1.

Spain and the biggest of the 10 newcomers, Poland, are taking the summit down to the wire by refusing to cede generous voting rights they secured in the EU's 2000 Nice Treaty.

Berlusconi said "there is one point on which we don't have agreement -- the system of majority voting", indicating that other constitutional disputes have been resolved.

"We are going to present four formulas (on voting rights)," Berlusconi told reporters, adding they "are solutions not only of the (Italian) presidency but presented and supported by several states".

The text drawn up over 17 months by an EU convention proposes some notable innovations that have won general support, including an elected president and foreign minister to give the EU a much higher profile on the world stage.