The EU will use financial and diplomatic sanctions against Russia if it fails to honour its international human rights obligations in Chechnya, EU leaders said at the Helsinki summit.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, who described the Russian ultimatum to Grozny as "an incredible and shocking development", said the leaders were determined "to hit the Russians as hard as they can" but to react in a credible way.
Meanwhile, overcoming years of unease at EU level and Greek prevarication at the prospects of Turkish membership, the summit also decided to extend Ankara "candidate" status. The EU's leading diplomatic representative, Mr Javier Solana, and the Commissioner for Enlargement, Mr Gunther Verheugen, then flew to Ankara to "clarify" elements of the offer, which Turkey is expected to accept.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, is expected to return with them today to lunch with EU leaders.
The leaders reworked their statement on Chechnya several times during the day to toughen up the wording, dropping a proposal to send a high-level delegation to Moscow. "There is nothing to negotiate about," said one official.
The EU statement said there was no question about the right of Russia to "preserve its territorial integrity or its right to fight against terrorism. However the fight against terrorism cannot, under any circumstances, warrant the destruction of cities or that they be emptied of their inhabitants, or that a whole population can be considered as terrorist."
Fear of a major blow-up at the summit between the British and French over beef and the Germans and the British over tax policy failed to materialise.
To German anger, the summit failed to break the deadlock over the controversial directive on taxation of non-resident savings accounts. The British are still insistent that compromise proposals from the Finns and the Commission threaten their $3,000 billion Eurobond market but agreed to refer the issue to a high-level working group which will report in six months.
The British Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, promised that they would play a full part in the group's work.
The German Finance Minister, Mr Hans Eichel, said, however, that he was "extraordinarily disappointed" and that "it cannot be that there are tax oases in the EU".
The leaders also agreed to work to establish by 2003 an EU capability to deploy up to 60,000 troops to crisis situations. Mr Ahern insisted that the proposal "met all our requirements".
