The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has suggested for the second time in a week that some EU leaders would back him if he wanted to succeed Mr Romano Prodi as president of the European Commission.
However, he insisted again yesterday that he was not personally interested in the post. In the final weeks of his role as president of the European Council, Mr Ahern is sounding out his colleagues in other EU capitals about the person to succeed Mr Prodi.
On the negotiations on a new EU constitution, Mr Ahern said that all EU countries had conceded the principle of a double-majority voting system in an EU constitution and went on to say that he was seeking a "final compromise" on the precise figures which would allow for the most efficient decision-making system.
After a meeting in Madrid with the new Spanish Prime Minister, Mr José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Mr Ahern said that he was conducting the process of identifying a successor to Mr Prodi on a one-to-one basis with each of the EU leaders. He said he would present his conclusions to an EU summit in June.
"I am going through with each of them all the names that have been proposed publicly or that have been the subject of speculation and I am getting their views on a private basis."
Asked whether he would allow his own name to go forward, Mr Ahern ruled himself out but said that other EU leaders had mentioned his name in connection with the job. "I am honoured and flattered that my name has been mentioned by prime ministers and other government representatives. However, there it ends. I am going to stay at home."
His comments yesterday came after an editorial in the Times of London which favoured Mr Ahern for the post, "should time not allow for an open and considered selection process".
The editorial said: "It might just be that Mr Ahern himself, leader of the once backwards country that has turned itself into the EU's great success story, could be the man to turn around the still more backward Brussels bureaucracy."
This in turn followed a report in the Financial Times Deutschland, the German-language version of the Financial Times, which quoted leading EU officials saying that Mr Ahern was emerging as the "hot favourite" to succeed Mr Prodi.
