Angela Merkel, German chancellor, yesterday rolled out the red carpet for Europe's most Eurosceptic leader - Czech president Václav Klaus - as she launched a two-month mission to save something from the wreckage of the EUconstitution.

To some EU diplomats, the unflashy Ms Merkel is ideally suited to ending more than five years of wrangling over a new treaty and to coming up with the outline for a new text at a summit in Brussels in mid-June.