European Commission President Mr Romano Prodi
"If Germany's position is unchangeable, then our position is also unchangeable," he told reporters after meeting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Berlin today . Italian Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi, host of the summit as Italy holds the bloc's rotating presidency, told reporters on arrival in Brussels it would take a miracle to clinch an agreement, although he added "sometimes miracles happen".
The leaders of all 15 EU members and 10 states due to join in May meet tomorrow for talks likely to drag on into Sunday to try to finalise a draft constitution designed to allow the bloc to function smoothly once it grows to 450 million people.
Bitter divisions have emerged between the founders, led by France and Germany, which want a radical overhaul of the way voting power is distributed in the EU to reflect population size, and Poland and Spain, which want to retain the status quo.
Germany said it would rather delay adopting the text than accept a watered down compromise.
"No result this year is in our opinion clearly better than a bad result that would delay or prevent the work of Europe for years," German Foreign Minister Mr Joschka Fischer told parliament.
European Commission President Mr Romano Prodi reminded EU leaders that the future of European integration was in their hands at the talks on the bloc's first constitution.
"Hardly ever have our representatives had such a decisive meeting before them as the European Council starting tomorrow," he told a news conference.