Ahern and Blair

The Irish government has begun a fresh bid to find a new president of the European Commission.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, currently holding the presidency of the enlarged EU, was beginning a consultation with fellow leaders on Monday after last week's Brussels summit failed to reach a conclusion.

Ireland was trying to find a successor to Italian Romano Prodi before its presidency ends on 30 June.

Frontrunners are now thought to include French foreign minister Michel Barnier and Portuguese prime minister José Manuel Durão Barroso, but a compromise candidate could yet emerge.

The summit saw a split develop between Britain and Italy on the one side and France and Germany on the other.

French president Jacques Chirac and German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder wanted Belgian leader Guy Verhofstadt to head up the new commission, which takes control of the union's bureaucracy in October.

But Tony Blair and Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi blocked the move on the grounds of Verhofstadt's federalist leanings.

Privately it was also felt Downing Street did not feel comfortable with Verhofstadt because of his opposition to the Iraq war.

Chirac and Schroder retaliated by shooting down UK commissioner Chris Patten's candidacy, despite the former Conservative chairman being the first choice of the powerful centre right bloc in the European parliament.

Similarly Barnier and Barroso could both be blocked for being seen to be too close to Paris and London respectively.

Compromise

That may clear the path for Ahern to nominate his countryman Pat Cox, the outgoing to president of the European parliament.

Number 10 said on Monday that the government would wait and see which names came forward before offering an opinion.

"It will be a matter for the taoiseach to decide how he wants to play it," the official spokesman said.

"It is important that whoever emerges as the Commission president does so as a result of genuine consultation.

"There will no doubt be lots of speculation... but it is important that there is genuine consensus.

Downing Street did not rule out the prospect of a specially convened summit to finalise a choice later this month.