EU: European Union foreign ministers will meet for a special negotiating session on the constitutional treaty next Monday amid calls for the Irish EU presidency to "take a risk" by tabling a comprehensive new draft of the treaty.
The ministers ended two days of negotiations in Brussels yesterday with a discussion on the future size and composition of the European Commission.
The Presidency has suggested that each country should nominate a commissioner until 2014, when the commission would be reduced to 18 - about two-thirds the number of the member states.
France and Germany backed the idea of a reduced commission.
Belgium suggested that the reduction should come in 2009.
Smaller countries, including Denmark, Austria and Greece, spoke out against a smaller commission, although Austria's Ms Benita Ferrero Waldner said that the issue could be discussed in the context of other institutional reforms.
Much of yesterday's discussion concerned proposals to abolish national vetoes in many policy areas, with ministers often restating previously established positions.
France's Mr Michel Barnier expressed frustration with the pace of the talks and called on the Irish Presidency to bring forward a "global package" of proposals on all outstanding issues.
"We have gone as far as we can go in discussion.
"Now we need a moment of truth.
"To provoke an agreement, it's time for the presidency to take a risk and put a global package deal on the table," he said.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, rejected the demand, promising only that the Presidency would table a new draft "in good time" before next month's meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.
"It's not a question of taking risks.
"It's a question of having sufficient discussion that will allow the presidency to put forward proposals that will meet with agreement," he said.
Irish officials played down the likelihood of new Presidency proposals before Monday's meeting.
They suggested that the purpose of the extra session would be to ensure that all delegations had an opportunity to make their views known.
One official pointed out that although the Presidency was familiar through bilateral contacts with each country's concerns, the other 24 member states were less familiar with one another's positions.
A number of the new member states have joined Britain and Ireland in opposing any move from unanimity on taxation policy.
Italy's foreign minister, Mr Franco Frattini, complained yesterday of the danger of backsliding.
"We cannot accept a further weakening of the current text.
"All the requests for change have gone in the direction of broadening the unanimity rule," he said.
France and Germany yesterday pressed for countries that agree to co-operate more closely on individual issues to be allowed to agree unanimously to make any decisions within their group.
Britain is opposed to such a move, insisting that member states outside such a group should be allowed to veto any move away from unanimity within it.
In a light-hearted moment during yesterday's meeting, Britain's Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, joked that his country appeared to be taking all the sting in the talks so far.
"There are some mosquitoes that only bite the British," he said.
Germany's Mr Joschka Fischer replied: "That's because they are pro-European mosquitoes."
Mr Barnier added: "We should beware of tsetse flies that put Europe to sleep."