EU leaders begin climate, treaty summit in Brussels

(BRUSSELS) - European leaders began a two-day summit on Thursday with two difficult issues on the agenda -- how to complete the ratification of the bloc's reforming Lisbon Treaty and how to finance the fight against climate change.

However the talk in the summit margins was on another key issue, not on the official agenda: who will become the first EU president, a post which the treaty creates?

On the Lisbon Treaty itself the last remaining hurdle is getting the eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus to sign the text which the 26 other European Union leaders have already done.

Klaus has demanded an opt-out for his country from the EU's rights charter, similar to the one given to Britain and Poland.

He deems that necessary to avoid having to pay restitution to Germans expelled during World War II.

The treaty is designed to streamline the workings of an expanded EU and envisages, for the first time, a president of the EU council of nations.

Just before the summit opened, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown described his predecessor Tony Blair as an "excellent candidate" for the EU president post.

"We the British government believe that Tony Blair would be an excellent candidate and an excellent person to hold the job of president of the (EU) council," Brown told reporters, while stressing that Blair had not yet put himself forward for the job.

He also said that a decision should not be expected at the EU summit.

However, opposition to Blair was not hard to find.

Spanish Prime Minister Rodriguez Zapatero, along with Belgian and Hungarian counterparts, were among those voicing their opposition.

"I see a convinced European president," said Zapatero, encapsulating the reservations against Blair who failed while in power to bring Britain into the eurozone or the passport-free Schengen zone.

Blair also made himself unpopular in some European quarters for his enthusiastic support of the US-led Iraq war.

On climate change the European leaders are hoping to overcome strong differences on how to fund the battle against global warming, with key international talks in Copenhagen just six weeks away.