EU leaders arrive in Brussels this evening for a meeting that will be overshadowed by the prospect of war in Iraq and the bitter divisions it has created between member-states, writes Denis Staunton in Brussels
Greece, which holds the EU Presidency, will seek to focus on areas of agreement, such as the need for progress in the Middle East peace process and for humanitarian aid to Iraq after war ends.
But diplomats fear that nothing can prevent a clash between the British prime minister, Mr Tony Blair and the French president, Mr Jacques Chirac, who will meet in Brussels for the first time since France threatened to veto a UN resolution that would trigger war against Iraq.
The relationship between the two men has long been tense and they exchanged sharp words during an EU summit six months ago. But statements by Mr Blair and his ministers in recent days, which blamed France for the failure of diplomacy in the Iraq crisis, have caused outrage in Paris.
The President of the Convention, Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing, has said that the EU's failure to agree a common position on Iraq highlighted the "dilapidated" state of the EU's common foreign and security policy. The EU's foreign policy chief, Mr Javier Solana, who has been almost invisible during the crisis, has expressed his frustration at the failure to find agreement. Mr Solana is understood to be deeply depressed about the future of the common foreign and security policy, which he believes has been set back by two or three years.
There is no chance of finding agreement at tonight's summit on the validity of the US-led military campaign, which France and Germany regard as illegal, wrong and foolish. But senior diplomats suggest that the EU could attempt to agree on what should happen after a war in Iraq.
All member-states agree that the international community should focus on reviving the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, partly in the hope that such a move would help to defuse anger in the Arab world over the attack on Iraq.
Agreement on the post-war reconstruction of Iraq could be more difficult to secure and the External Affairs Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, spoke for many EU governments when he warned that it would be hard to persuade Europeans to pay for rebuilding what was destroyed in a war many regard as illegitimate.
Mr Giscard d'Estaing believes there is no point in the Convention discussing foreign policy until the fog of war disperses. But once that debate starts, it could become the most explosive since the Convention began. European federalists, such as the German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, believe that the crisis over Iraq should spur the EU to create strong foreign policy institutions. But other member-states, such as Britain, are determined to resist any move to abolish national vetoes over foreign policy issues.
Diplomats in Brussels agree that much will depend on the course of any military campaign in Iraq, with a short, successful war possibly enhancing the position within the EU of Britain's Mr Tony Blair at the expense of the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac.
The consequences of a protracted, bloody campaign are more difficult to predict but the longer war continues, the more difficult it will be to heal the bitter divisions that have arisen among EU leaders.