IRELAND: The Taoiseach has said he is "heartened" by the willingness of European Union leaders to seek a compromise on the issues dividing them over a new EU constitution.
At the end of the first month of the Irish EU presidency, Mr Ahern said he was still seeking agreement during the presidency and believed EU leaders were determined to help.
He was certain "that people do want to move forward, people do want to find compromises, people are prepared to help and work with us to do that".
The Taoiseach was speaking in Dublin after a meeting in Government Buildings with the Polish Prime Minister, Mr Leszek Miller, where they discussed renewed efforts to reach agreement after the talks collapsed last month. Mr Ahern said Mr Miller had agreed with him that delay was not in anyone's interests.
But while the two leaders spoke in positive terms about their hopes for an agreement, Mr Miller insisted that the retention of the voting rights secured under the Nice Treaty remained fundamental to Poland's position.
With Spain, Poland has resisted Germany's push to replace the Nice system with a "double majority" system proposed by the Convention on the Future of Europe.
Germany has said the Nice system is unfair because it gives Spain and Poland almost as many votes as Germany even though they have less than half its popultation.
Decisions would pass under the double-majority system if approved by a majority of the 25 EU members representing more than 60 per cent of its population.
Mr Miller said the Nice system "continues to be close to our aspiration" and remained "fundamental for us to build upon" in the search for a solution.
He originally planned to meet Mr Ahern last month, but the visit was postponed after he was injured in a helicopter crash.
Agreement would be up to the Irish presidency to a large extent, Mr Miller said. "We really hope that it will be possible to reach a solution that is satisfactory."
Mr Ahern said the two leaders had agreed that the consitution was important. "We share a strong commitment to finding an agreed way forward as quickly as possible and we do not believe that delay is in anyone's interest," he said.
"We agreed that the challenge we face is a real one, that the issues involved are sensitive and complex. And if we are to move forward we'll all need to find the necessary political will to do so because it's a collective endeavour in which we all have to play our part.
"Of course, without a willingness to compromise on all sides there will be no agreement. I assured the Prime Minister that as a presidency we are determined to do whatever we can to encourage and facilitate the earliest possible agreement. And the Prime Minister assured me of his government's continued support for the Irish approach."
