European Union leaders put their differences over Iraq on hold last night as they agreed a joint statement on what should happen once war is over.
During a meeting in Brussels in an atmosphere described by one participant as "glacial", the leaders avoided reopening the debate about whether war is justified.
But they agreed that Iraq's territorial integrity should be maintained, that the EU should help with humanitarian aid and that the UN should play a central role "during and after the current crisis".
A senior diplomat said that, although the mood at the meeting was "as harmonious as could be expected", there was no doubt about the lingering antagonism between some EU leaders, notably the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair and the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac.
Mr Chirac insisted that a statement deploring the fact that Iraq did not take its "final chance" to disarm should be removed from the communiqué.
But he agreed to a phrase British officials claimed was an acceptance of Mr Blair's demand that the EU should help to pay for the post-war reconstruction of Iraq: "We want to effectively contribute to the conditions allowing all Iraqis to live in freedom, dignity and prosperity under a representative government that will be at peace with its neighbours and an active member of the international community. The Council invites the Commission and the High Representative to explore the means by which the EU might help the Iraqi people to achieve these objectives."
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, arrived at the meeting an hour late after attending a Dáil debate on the continuing use of Shannon Airport by US forces taking part in the attack on Iraq. Mr Ahern, the only EU leader who has yet to declare if he believes the war to be justified, declined to speak to reporters after the meeting.
Mr Blair and Mr Chirac entered the Brussels meeting separately, both grim-faced and silent.
Before the meeting began, Mr Blair and Spain's Mr Jose Mariá Aznar, who supports the war, stood talking in one corner while Mr Chirac and Mr Schröder chatted in another.
Addressing the leaders at the start of their session, the President of the European Parliament, appeared to back Mr Blair, suggesting that EU assistance in post-war Iraq should go beyond humanitarian aid.
"Both for those committed to this war and those who oppose it, together we are confronted today with a need for common action over Iraq itself and its neighbouring states - the need for enhanced humanitarian aid, during and after the conflict, and assistance for economic and political reconstruction in a post-war Iraq, if led by the United Nations," he said.
Mr Cox said that failure to agree on Iraq represented a setback for the UN, the transatlantic relationship and the EU itself. And he placed the blame for the EU's failure to find a common position firmly at the door of the bigger member-states.
"There are questions to be asked but they are not uniquely attributable to any one side of this complex argument. Failure to compromise is a shared responsibility. It marks a departure from the European way of doing business. It has not been a failure of smaller states," he said.
The Swedish Prime Minister, Mr Goeran Persson, acknowledged that the war had plunged the EU into crisis but predicted that the leaders would overcome it.
"We have had crises before and we've come through them. Now we have to focus on important things like the Middle East and try to avoid the suffering of the Iraqi people," he said.
The European Commission asked member-states to release a further €100 million for emergency humanitarian aid to Iraq. The Commission has already set aside €21 million.