Spanje en Polen blijven onverzoenbaar op punt van stemweging (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders were engaging in a series of bilateral talks late into Friday night to try and break the deadlock on the Constitution.

Dubbed 'confessionals' by Italian Prime Minister and current head of the EU, Silvio Berlusconi, member states abandoned a formal working dinner in order to have continual bilateral talks until around midnight.

A new compromise should be made available early on Saturday morning.

However, the signs were not good. During a plenary session before the 'confessionals', member states stuck to their well-known positions.

And the first meeting between Spain's José Maria Aznar and Mr Berlucosni was a failure according to diplomats.

Similarly, Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller emerged to tell Polish television that Poland "is a great and proud country which is not fighting for our interests, but for small and medium sized countries in the EU".

Both Madrid and Warsaw have adopted a hard line position on vote weighting in the new Constitution arguing that the Nice Treaty rules, which are relatively beneficial for them, should not be changed.

On the other hand, Germany has adopted an equally hard line position in favour of a double majority system - proposed in the new Constitution - which gives it more power.

At the moment, diplomats are sounding a pessimistic note about the state of the whole talks. At the very least, discussions are expected to go on until late on Saturday night or Sunday morning.

Mr Berlusconi said earlier on in the day that no one can do the impossible.

"If we cannot manage to bring to a close it is better to continue rather than settle for a bad constitution", he said mentioning once again the possibility of the talks continuing into the Irish Presidency beginning in just over two weeks time.