ROME: Italy has pledged to finish the main negotiations on the EU's new constitution before its presidency ends in December, leaving little more than technical tidying-up for Ireland's presidency at the start of 2004.
The foreign minister, Mr Franco Frattini, said an Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) to begin in early October will avoid reopening most of the issues agreed at the Convention on the Future of Europe.
He identified a number of areas, however, where further negotiations were needed, notably on new rules governing how votes are taken in the Council of Ministers, where national governments meet.
The draft constitution calls for the abolition of the complicated system of voting weights accorded to each country and to replace it with a "double majority", whereby measures could be approved by a simple majority of member-states representing 60 per cent of the EU's population.
Spain and Poland have made clear that they will oppose the change, which would effectively weaken their voice in EU decision-making.
Mr Frattini acknowledged that other countries would have different concerns but he said Italy wanted to keep a strict limit on the issues to be negotiated.
"It is self-evident that any country may raise doubts or objections. That does not mean we will reopen these things," he said.
Italy's deputy prime minister, Mr Gianfranco Fini, said he would like to see more qualified majority voting on foreign policy and defence issues. But he predicted the veto would remain on tax issues, a neuralgic point for Irish negotiators.
Senior diplomatic sources suggested yesterday the negotiations on voting in the Council of Ministers could be linked to the reform of representation in the European Commission.
Many countries are unhappy with a proposal in the draft constitution that would remove each member-state's right to appoint a commissioner with full voting rights.
Mr Frattini will consult his counterparts during the summer and finalise the IGC's agenda at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in September.
The IGC will open with a meeting of EU leaders and foreign ministers in Rome in October. From then on, foreign ministers will meet at least twice a month until an EU summit in December, at which Italy hopes to reach political agreement on a text.
Under Ireland's presidency, the text would be translated into 21 languages and fine-tuned technically by EU lawyers before it is signed by 25 states between May 1 and June 2004.
Italy sought yesterday to repair the damage caused to its relationship with Germany by anti-German remarks made by a junior tourism minister, Mr Stefano Stefani, prior to reports that he had offered his resignation.
Mr Fini said that he expected Mr Stefani to resign, although he acknowledged that the prime minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, had no power to sack him without a vote in parliament.