Tony Blair claimed a victory at Nice early this morning as French plans to scrap vetoes on tax and social security were dropped and the prime minister won the battle on the "red lines" he had promised to defend.

The talks nearly ended in farce, as smaller EU nations threatened to walk out of the Nice summit and commission president Jaques Chirac was forced to propose that the talks should be postponed for three weeks.

A huge row has blown up over the retention of QMV for the "big four" in the Council of Ministers - France, Germany, Britain and Italy.