David Miliband, the UK foreign secretary, is emerging as the frontrunner to be the European Union's next head of foreign policy, but the contest for the bloc's full-time presidency is still open, diplomats and EU officials said yesterday.
They said Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium's prime minister, was the name on most politicians' lips for the presidency, but pointed out that discussions were continuing among the 27 national leaders who will make the final decision.
The two jobs will set the tone for a new era in European public life when the EU's Lisbon treaty - a charter of institutional reforms that has been eight years in the making - comes into force on December 1.
EU leaders will meet in Berlin on Monday for ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and may use the opportunity to focus their thoughts on the two jobs. But the appointments will not be formalised until a special EU summit in Brussels later this month.
Some EU officials think the more powerful of the jobs could be that of the foreign policy high representative - a position held for the past 10 years by Spain's Javier Solana.
The foreign policy supremo will not only represent EU governments but will be a vice-president of the European Commission, controlling a multi-billion euro budget and a worldwide staff likely to comprise 2,000 to 3,000 employees.
By contrast, EU leaders are gravitating towards the view that the first full-time president should concentrate on internal matters such as preparing the bloc's summits, of which there are at least four every year.
Mr Miliband, 44, tops the list of contenders for the foreign-policy job, partly because some national leaders like his positive, pro-EU perspective, and partly because he comes from the centre-left. Under a deal between the EU's centre-right and centre-left groups, the former is supposed to provide the first full-time president and the latter the foreign policy chief.
Massimo D'Alema, 60, a former Italian premier and foreign minister, has also been mentioned in the past week for the foreign policy job. But diplomats said he would present difficulties for the 10 EU countries that rejected communism 20 years ago, because he used to be a leading light in the now defunct Italian Communist party.
Mr Van Rompuy, 62, is a Flemish Christian Democrat who reluctantly took the Belgian premiership last December after a judicial scandal brought down his predecessor. The Irish bookmaker Paddy Power rates him as the favourite for the presidency.
Diplomats said he had a good chance because he was a likeable, uncontroversial personality from a small, profoundly pro-EU member state.
"He's a new face. He hasn't had a chance to make enemies," said a diplomat from a central European country.
Officials in Paris said Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president, would be prepared to accept Mr Van Rompuy if he emerged as the only viable candidate with strong support elsewhere. "He is someone the president respects," said one official. "And having a francophone in the job is always useful."
The prospects for Tony Blair, 56, the former UK prime minister, faded last week when he failed to receive much support at an EU summit - even from the British Labour government's nominal Socialist friends in continental Europe.
"Tony Blair was rarely mentioned during last week's summit, but he may come back," said the central European diplomat. "Nothing is excluded."
