“It will take a miracle to secure an agreement,” Berlusconi (AFP)

BRUSSELS, December 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - EU leaders Friday, December 12, launched what could be termed “a make or break” summit aimed at hammering out a first-ever constitution for the expanding bloc, but were faced fierce differences centered on the power-charged issue of voting rights.

Italian Prime Minister and current EU President Silvio Berlusconi, who has said it would take a "miracle" to secure an agreement, declined Friday to elaborate as his EU counterparts arrived for the Brussels summit, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Major European dailies have underlined the importance of the summit, with British daily the Independent headlined “Europe: the moment of truth”, and the BBC calling it “Crunch Summit”.

"We are trying," Berlusconi told reporters shortly before the talks - which are scheduled to last two days but which some fear could turn into a marathon haggle through the weekend - got underway.

The summit is designed to agree on a constitution for the European Union that will streamline its decision-making process when it expands next May.

The leaders of the EU's big three - Britain, France and Germany - held an hour-long pre-summit breakfast meeting in a Brussels hotel, but said nothing afterwards, according to AFP.

Some participants were more upbeat about the summit's chances.

Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson, asked if a deal was possible, said: "Yes I do," adding: "It's not only about Spain and Poland, it's about Germany," which he noted was a key force in the foundation of the European Union.

In what could be a significant factor, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said in Warsaw that his country Poland must avoid using its veto at the EU summit.

"We must avoid a veto, which would be a pure and simple denial. We must rather present our arguments and look for a compromise over time," he said.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder meanwhile warned: "We want a constitution, but this constitution must have substance.

Spanish Prime Minister

The Independent, however, put it in blain English. “As Europe's leaders arrived in Brussels last night (Thursday night) for their most difficult negotiations for years, the air was thick with threat and counter-threat. But there was agreement on one thing: Europe faces a long-delayed moment of truth.

“At stake is not just the text of the European Union's first ever constitution but the future of a continent. Can it forge ahead together or will the EU split again, as it did so bitterly over war in Iraq? This morning the leaders of the EU's 15 present and 10 future member states find themselves staring over the precipice.”

Outside the summit, ordinary Europeans appear to have little idea of the complex issues at the Brussels talks, according to the BBC.

“In Paris, people interviewed by the BBC's World Today program either said they had "no idea" or hoped it would be a "constitution like the French one with liberty, fraternity and peace in the world".

“An interviewee in Vienna said he had "heard a lot, of course, but nothing special".

“In Britain, concerns over creeping constitutional powers coming out of Brussels has turned into outright hostility to the EU, the BBC's Mike Sanders reports, and only one in four Britons now supports the organization in opinion polls.”

After nearly two years of haggling, the crux of the disagreement boils down to just one crucial issue - national voting rights within a bloc that will have 450 million inhabitants.

On the eve of the talks, warnings that it might fail multiplied, with Schroeder indicating the EU might have to delay its efforts because of the voting row, centered on Spain and Poland.

The key sticking point is expected to be the refusal by Spain and Poland to surrender the generous voting rights they secured at an EU summit in Nice in 2000.

Under the Nice Treaty, Madrid and Warsaw won the right to have 27 votes each in EU decision-making, just two votes fewer than Germany, which is twice their size in population terms.

But the EU's draft constitution, hammered out over 17 months, reduces their voting rights and thus the power they will wield within the bloc.

The text says EU decisions will in future need a "double majority" to be approved. That means proposals will require the support of half the EU states, who together represent at least 60 percent of the population.