EU: President Jacques Chirac of France last night predicted a successful outcome to the EU constitution negotiations, while criticising Britain for insisting on maintaining vetoes over tax and social policy.
"That is a real problem which we will discuss tomorrow but I fear we cannot make progress on it in the time available," Mr Chirac said.
"We are holding back Europe when a measure risks being blocked by one country."
On the vexed issue of the next president of the Commission, Mr Chirac said it was "very difficult" to see someone from outside the euro-zone or the Schengen area getting the job.
It would be hard, he said, for someone coming from a country which did not participate in such a policy initiative to impose himself on the commission.Such an analysis would preclude the president coming from Britain, Ireland, Denmark or Sweden, ruling out Mr Chris Patten, Mr Pat Cox or Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
Mr Chirac said the party affiliation of the next Commission president was unimportant. What mattered was that the person chosen should have a strong European culture and experience, he said, in what was taken by his francophone audience as a coded disapproval of the linguistic inadequacy of Mr Patten.
The French president paid tribute to the "extremely intelligent" work of the Irish EU presidency on the constitution. The presidency had, he said, understood the demands of the different partners.
"I have the feeling today that we have arrived at a point where an agreement is very, very possible. A certain number of questions remain to be discussed." He described yesterday afternoon's first round of discussions as "very disciplined". Contributions had been "brief and clear".