EU SUMMIT: EU leaders have dropped a controversial plan to set up "protection zones" for processing asylum-seekers outside the EU's borders.
At the start of a three-day summit in Porto Carras, near Thessaloniki, the Greek Prime Minister, Mr Costas Simitis, suggested that they delete a reference to the proposal from their draft communiqué.
Britain's Mr Tony Blair, who had proposed the plan, withdrew it before the meeting began, according to the Swedish Foreign Minister, Ms Anna Lindh.
Torrential rain delayed the start of the summit, which is surrounded by a level of security unprecedented in Greek history.
Snipers with night-vision equipment are in position around the hotel where the meeting is being held and surface-to-air missiles have been deployed to protect against attack from the air.
Thousands of demonstrators marched peacefully in Thessaloniki yesterday, protesting against EU immigration and economic policies.
Further protests are expected today and some activists have said they are determined to break through police barriers to confront the leaders.
The decision to withhold approval for asylum protection zones is a disappointment for Britain, which wanted the centres to be run jointly with the United Nations, probably in Africa.
As the meeting began last night, the President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, voiced scepticism about the plan and warned that it had little chance of gaining approval in the European Parliament.
"Ringing the EU with these camps is an idea that many would view with caution.
"I expect that if the European Parliament was asked to vote for it, it would be difficult to get a majority for it," Mr Cox said.
Today's discussions will begin with a presentation by Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing of the draft constitution approved last week by the Convention on the Future of Europe.
The leaders will express their views on the draft and agree the terms on which an Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC), starting in October, will complete the work of drafting the constitution.
Some countries, led by Germany, want the IGC to finish its work before the end of December and to avoid any major revision of the text.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, said yesterday that the IGC should be conducted entirely by EU leaders and foreign ministers rather than officials.
"We don't want an army of officials - with all due respect to their work - fussing over what the Convention has already worked out," he said.
Other countries, including Ireland, are reluctant to set such an early deadline on the IGC's work and argue that a "reflection group" of officials is necessary to tidy up the treaty text.
The centre-right European People's Party, which brings together Christian Democrat parties around Europe, yesterday called for the IGC to be wound up before the end of the Italian presidency in December.
The meeting in Porto Carras is the last major EU summit to be held outside Brussels, following an agreement at Nice to abandon the practice of hosting summits outside the EU capital.
Irish officials have confirmed that the two regular summits to be held during the Irish presidency next year will be in Brussels.
EU leaders may also discuss Italian proposals for an initiative to promote economic growth by public investment in infrastructure, research and development, the Danish Prime Minister, Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said.
