Poland today hinted it could drop its threat to veto talks on a new European Union treaty while Germany piled on more pressure for agreement at next week's summit.
Poland's ruling Kaczynski twins had threatened to block progress on the charter for reforming EU institutions at a June 21st-22nd summit if their demands for re-weighting the EU voting system were not taken into account.
Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski told Polish daily newspaper Dziennikthat he was more optimistic of an agreement after the visit of conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday.
"I believe we can say some light has appeared. But it is too early to say anything definitive or give any details," the prime minister said.
Mr Sarkozy's visit was part of a joint diplomatic offensive to convince Poland not to obstruct the charter.
Warsaw believes the voting rules contained in the treaty give too much power to big countries - Germany in particular.
Poland's demands are backed only by the Czech Republic. President Lech Kaczynski, who generally takes a harder line on Europe than his brother, will travel to Berlin at the weekend to meet the German Chancellor and EU presidency holder, Angela Merkel.
In an apparent warning to Poland and others wanting changes to the charter, Mrs Merkel said there were limits to what any state could demand.