EU leaders failed to agree on a new president of the 25-member bloc's executive yesterday, postponing the decision until an unspecified date to allow tempers to cool after a bitter row over candidates.
"It is postponed for another day," the Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche, told reporters, declining to specify when the debate would be reopened.
Britain led resistance to France and Germany's favourite to succeed Italy's Romano Prodi - Belgium Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, who last night formally withdrew from the contest - while the candidate put forward by European conservatives, Briton Chris Patten, also lacked enough support.
A Dutch official said it was not yet clear if the issue would be resolved before his country takes over as president of the EU on July 1st.
Earlier, the Portuguese Prime Minister, Mr José Manuel Durao Barroso, had emerged as the latest strong contender to succeed Mr Prodi. However, as an indication of the difficulties facing the heads of government, Portuguese diplomats moved swiftly to quash talk that he was in the frame.
The acrimonious search deeply divided the 25 members of the European Union. As neither of the initial frontrunners won enough support at a late-night meeting of the bloc's leaders on Thursday, Mr Durao Barroso's name emerged as a possible compromise candidate on the second day of a Brussels summit.
"Of the three names there, Barroso is the third man," said an EU diplomat who had followed Thursday's discussions closely.
But Portuguese diplomats poured cold water on the suggestion. "He (Mr Durao Barroso) was contacted about it, that's true. But he is not a candidate," said one.
While candidates do not officially exist, names are often touted publicly and the people involved do not always deny they would be keen to take the job if they were offered it.
Mr Durao Barroso (48) leads a centre-right coalition and has served as foreign minister. He is fluent in several European languages.
Diplomats said Ireland, current EU president, is pushing hard to find agreement on the next Commission president as the icing on the cake of a meeting that looks likely to deliver EU citizens their first constitution.
EU diplomats said Ireland is seeking a candidate from the centre-right, a choice which would appease many governments and win over the European People's Party (EPP), the political force that won most seats in last week's European Parliament elections.
Mr Elmar Brok, a senior German member of the EPP, said Mr Patten, who was unexpectedly proposed by the party on Thursday for the job, might no longer be their man.
"I assume that it would be wise to look for a new candidate," he told reporters, adding that Mr Barroso and Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel were other options.
Other names are doing the rounds, such as French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, a former European Commissioner.
But EU officials note that many leaders would prefer to see a Commission president from a small country. It is also unlikely a Frenchman would get the job while France's Jean-Claude Trichet is at the helm of the European Central Bank.
Luxembourg's Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Claude Juncker, another French and German favourite who also has broad support among other EU states, was not on the Irish presidency list, having ruled himself out for the job. And the outgoing president of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, is being mentioned as a serious option - particularly as his populist style and excellent communication skills might be needed to get the EU through a tricky public relations patch.