Former Irish PM touts bid for EU top job

(DUBLIN) - Former Irish premier John Bruton touted himself as a candidate for EU president on Tuesday, two days before a summit due to decide on the bloc's newly-created top jobs.

Bruton said his experience as head of a three-party coalition in the 1990s and his five years as EU ambassador to Washington meant he could bring special skills to the new post.

"I believe that this is a job that is one of consensus-building. The European Council is 27 heads of government. It can only make decisions by unanimous agreement.

"So its needs somebody full-time working behind the scenes to build consensus amongst the 27, visiting them in their home capitals, taking the time to listen, making sure that the meeting is well-prepared so that a consensus can be reached at the end of the meeting," Bruton said.

"That is the job I feel that I did well in government," he told Ireland's RTE state radio.

The European Union's Swedish presidency is struggling to find consensus candidates for two new top jobs -- the EU president, and a newly-created foreign policy chief -- days before a summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Belgian premier Herman Van Rompuy has been favourite for the top job, but others mentioned include Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker and former Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga.

Bruton, 62, a former leader of the right-of-centre Fine Gael party, ran a three-party coalition government in Ireland from 1994 to 1997.

The ex premier also pointed to his involvement in the convention that drafted the doomed EU constitution, which was torpedoed by French and Dutch voters in 2005, and then repackaged as the Lisbon Treaty.

"I understand all the moving parts of the EU," said Bruton, who announced his interest in the job last month, in a letter to the ambassadors of all EU countries to the United States.

Current Irish premier Brian Cowen has voiced support for Bruton's candidacy.