NAPLES, Italy (AP) -- Foreign ministers facing a deadline in two weeks for a final draft European Union constitution must still decide whether it should provide for a foreign minister or mention God when the expanded grouping enters the world stage.
      The 15-nation EU expands to 25 nations next May. The ministers, who began discussions on a charter two months ago, have made little headway on other thorny issues, including the allocation of European Parliament seats and the powers of the European Central Bank.
      They will seek agreement for the second day of a two-day meeting Saturday, but officials said it will be up to the leaders of the EU nations meeting in Brussels Dec. 12-13, to reach a compromise.
      "It is clear we are not at the moment close to a deal," said Poland's European Affairs Minister Danuta Huebner.
      "Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told BBC radio.
      Once a draft constitution is agreed on, the text will be published in all EU languages, then scrutinized in national referendums. The charter would take effect Jan. 1, 2005.
      The biggest hurdle has been objections by Spain and Poland to the changes in the voting system in the 465-article draft constitution.
      The draft constitution suggests that decisions be adopted if at least half the EU states representing 60 percent of the bloc's population are in favor.
      But Spain and Poland want to stick to a 1999 deal allocating them 27 votes each in the EU executive commission, the group's decision-making body. That's two less than for the more populous Britain, France, Germany and Italy, which each get 29 votes.
      "You can't just go and give 82 million Germans 29 votes, and then give a combined 80 million Poles and Spaniards 54 votes," German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in November.
      On foreign policy, Britain objects to the title of foreign minister, arguing it suggests there is such a thing as a European super-state.
      In a last-minute proposal, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, the meeting's chairman, suggested EU foreign policy decisions be made by majority voting -- an idea that Britain, Sweden and others oppose.
      On defense, France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg want a permanent EU military planning commission and command group based at NATO's military headquarters near the southern Belgian city of Mons.
      EU military planners would draw on NATO's transport planes, satellite intelligence and communications network for peacekeeping missions.
      The United States has been critical of plans to launch a separate EU military planning cell, saying it risked undermining NATO unity and would waste scarce resources by duplicating existing alliance facilities.
      Negotiators have still not determined whether to mention God or Europe's Christian heritage in the charter.
      The 10 states joining the EU in May are Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta and the Czech Republic.
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      On the Net:
      Intergovernmental Conference Future of the Union:
      http://ue.eu.int/igc/index.asp

      RIGA, Dec 5 (Reuters) -- A team of EU maritime inspectors arrived in Latvia on Friday to check an ageing oil tanker waiting to depart from port despite loud protests from Spain and the European Commission over the single-hull vessel.
      "The inspection is soon under way, and they will decide whether the ship is fit to sail," Ansis Zeltins, director of Latvia's Maritime Administration, told Reuters.
      He added that the inspection was welcomed by Riga, which shares European concerns about ageing oil tankers, and said Latvia would adapt strict EU standards as soon as it becomes part of the Union next May.
      Gunar Steinerts, a Latvian observer among the inspectors from Spain, Britain, France and Denmark, said the inspection would likely take several hours and delay the departure of the "Geroi Sevastopolya" from the Ventspils oil port until late Friday evening.
      Spain is fearful of another disaster like the Prestige, which sank off its coast a year ago, and Latvia agreed to the inspection after pressure from Spain and the European Commission.
      The Sevastopolya was due to carry 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and follow the same route as the ill-fated Prestige, a 27-year-old, single-hulled tanker, which discharged 63,000 tonnes of fuel oil upon sinking off the Spanish coast a year ago.
      The spill caused billions of dollars in economic damage, and the WWF environmental group said it could harm fishing, tourism and natural habitats for a decade.
      Shipping brokers told Reuters that California-based Westport Petroleum, a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan's Mitsui & Co, had chartered the Russian-flagged and Russian-owned tanker to carry the cargo to Singapore, passing around Spain.
      Westport confirmed the charter and said it was pressing on.
      Spain said on Wednesday the Sevastopolya will not be permitted within Spain's 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and it would use its navy to stop the ship if needed.
      Under the U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea all ships have rights of innocent passage through the EEZ, according to maritime experts, but that has not prevented Madrid from acting to avoid another Prestige-like disaster.
      In this case, Westport is acting within the law as the EU ban on single-hulled tankers, which came into force in October, only applies to vessels loading in EU ports. Latvia is not covered by the ban until it joins the EU.
      EU inspectors in Latvia to check ageing tanker

      BRUSSELS, Dec 7 (Reuters) -- Following is an overview of the voting powers in the European Union's Council of Ministers, where EU governments take decisions.
      CURRENT SYSTEM
      Under the Amsterdam Treaty adopted in 1997, a qualified majority decision on a proposal from the executive European Commission requires 62 of the total 87 votes in the Council.
      In cases where a proposal does not come from the Commission, those 62 votes must be cast by at least 10 of the 15 member states. Abstentions do not count when a vote requires unanimity.
      NICE TREATY SYSTEM
      After the expansion of the EU with 10 new member states, the weighted voting system adopted under the 2000 Nice Treaty will come into force. It sets a "triple key" for taking decisions by qualified majority.
      To adopt a Commission proposal requires a qualified majority of at least 232 of a total 321 votes, cast by at least half the member states.
      In other cases, at least 232 votes, cast by at least two-thirds of the 25 member states, are needed.
      When a decision is adopted by qualified majority, a member state can request verification that the majority represents at least 62 percent of the EU's population. If it does not, the decision is not adopted.
      CONVENTION PROPOSAL
      The Convention of EU and national lawmakers, which drew up a draft EU constitution last June, proposed scrapping the weighted votes for member states in the Amsterdam and Nice treaties.
      Instead, qualified majority decisions would be taken where a simple majority of member states representing at least 60 percent of the population would be enough to adopt a decision.
      Votes in Council Ministers according to [the two treaties]:
      

Country Amsterdam Treaty Nice Treaty Germany 10 29 United Kingdom 10 29 France 10 29 Italy 10 29 Spain 8 27 Polans -- 27 Netherlands 5 13 Greece 5 12 Czech Republic -- 12 Belgium 5 12 Hungray -- 12 Portugal 5 12 Sweden 4 10 Austria 4 10 Slovakia -- 7 Denmark 3 7 Finland 3 7 Ireland 3 7 Lithuania -- 7 Latvia -- 4 Slovenia -- 7 Estonia -- 4 Cypus -- 4 Luxembourg 2 4 Malta -- 3 TOTAL 87 321

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- A Latvian man was indicted on charges he killed 30 elderly women in Latvia over the course of several years, the worst serial-murder case in the Baltic state's modern history, prosecutor spokeswoman Dzintra Subrovska said Wednesday.
      "There have been others convicted of killing more than one person in Latvia, but nobody close to this (number)," she said, adding that each victim was either strangled or suffocated.
      She declined the release the name of the suspect, but said he was 25-years-old.
      He was also charged with attempting to kill eight other women during an alleged killing spree spanning several years.
      Subrovska said the man confessed to killing the women and robbing, but said their deaths were unintentional.
      It wasn't clear whether the man had a lawyer.
      The man was indicted by police Nov. 26, but prosecutors only announced it Wednesday. A trial could start by the end of December. If convicted on any of the 30 separate counts of murder, the man could be sentenced to life in prison. Latvia, an ex-Soviet republic of 2.3 million residents doesn't have the death penalty.
      The unidentified man was detained in February amid suspicion of killing five of the 30 women in 2002 and kept in jail while police and prosecutors interrogated him.
      Subrovska said the man confessed to another 25 killings before 2002. When he was indicted, he was charged with 30 counts of murder, along with burglary.
      Investigators said the man posed as a worker with Latvia's Gas, the country's state-owned natural gas company, convincing his victims to let him into their homes under the pretense of wanting to read their gas meters.
      At several of the crime scenes, there were no obvious signs of struggle and police initially assumed some victims had died of natural causes, Subrovska said.
      "He sometimes just covered their mouths with a towel," she said.
      In total, he made off with some 18,000 lats (US$32,000) in stolen goods.

      TALLINN, Estonia (AP) -- Latvia's parliament on Thursday extended the mission of its troops in Iraq -- while officials in the neighboring Baltic state of Estonia indicated that it could follow suit in the coming weeks.
      Governments in both ex-Soviet republics have been outspoken supporters of U.S. policy in Iraq, dispatching forces to the region over the summer. Latvia has around 100 soldiers in the region and Estonia has approximately 40.
      Lawmakers in Latvia's 100-seat parliament voted 58 to 21 to approve the government's request to extend its mission to Oct. 16 of next year. There was one abstention, and the remaining deputies either weren't present or didn't vote.
      The current parliamentary mandate was set to end on Dec. 31.
      The two Baltic governments have said that -- especially with membership in NATO looming next year -- they must show a willingness to contribute to international security, or risking losing credibility.
      But some Latvian deputies were critical.
      "They ousted (Saddam) Hussein but did not find any nuclear weapons," Indulis Emsis, of the Greens and Farmers' Union party, was quoted by the Baltic News Service as saying during Thursday's parliamentary debate. "What did they find? Oil."
      Estonian Defense Minister Margus Hanson told reporters Thursday he would recommend that the government ask parliament to prolong the mission of its troops beyond June 19 -- when the current mission was scheduled to end. He didn't say how long an extension the government might request.
      Hanna Hinrikus, the government's spokeswoman, said Prime Minister Juhan Parts had made no any final decisions on the matter.
      Several Estonian troops were injured earlier this year when they were ambushed in Baghdad, but none of the Baltic troops has been killed.

      RIGA, Dec 6 (Reuters) -- An ageing, rusty Russian oil tanker left Latvia early on Saturday, despite European protests, to sail the same route as a similar vessel which sank off Spain last year causing billions of dollars of damage.
      Madrid and the European Commission, which have expressed grave fears about the single-hull Geroi Sevastopolya, had asked the Baltic state to halt its departure from the Ventspils port and immediately adopt an EU ban on such vessels.
      The tanker is 24 years old, almost as old as the single-hull Prestige, which discharged 63,000 tonnes of fuel oil when it sank off Spain's northwest coast in November last year.
      "The ship left port in the early hours," said Latvian maritime safety expert Gunars Steinerts who accompanied inspectors from Spain, France, Denmark and Britain to check the vessel on Friday for any fault that could stop its departure.
      "It was rusty, but not that critical," Steinerts said. "I mean, it did pass through the inspection."
      The EU banned single-hull tankers following the Prestige disaster, but the restriction only applies to vessels loading in EU ports. Latvia is due to join the European bloc next year.
      The United Nation's International Maritime Organisation (IMO) -- the world's top maritime body -- is phasing out single-hull oil tankers, but the vessels will still be allowed to operate until April 2005.
      The Sevastopolya, which is carrying 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, is heading to Singapore.
      Madrid said on Wednesday the tanker would not be permitted within Spain's 200 nautical mile exclusion zone and it would use its navy to stop the ship if needed.
      Steinerts said the ship would sail the intended route, but stay outside Spanish waters. "The plan is to go around Spanish waters," he said.
      Shipping brokers told Reuters that California-based Westport Petroleum, a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan's Mitsui & Co, had chartered the tanker to carry the cargo to Singapore.
      The Prestige spill caused billions of dollars in economic damage, and the WWF environmental group said it could harm fishing, tourism and natural habitats for a decade.

      LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) -- The world's top maritime body has brought forward the phase-out of single-hull oil tankers, but vessels of the type that spilled thousands of tonnes of heavy fuel oil onto Spanish beaches last year will still be allowed to trade until April 2005.
      The United Nations' International Maritime Organisation (IMO) hammered out the stricter laws late on Thursday that bring forward its original staggered global phase-out by at least five years.
      "The phase-out timetable has been greatly simplified and accelerated," said an IMO spokesman in London, adding the body expected to issue a detailed statement on it later on Friday.
      The IMO unanimously agreed to ban from April 2005 the carriage of all "heavy grades of oil" including fuel oil, which has blighted Spain's northwestern coastline since the 26-year-old single-hull tanker Prestige, carrying 77,000 tonnes of the thick black material, sank off its shores last November.
      The European Union, which, in the wake of the disaster had banned single-hull tankers carrying heavy oil from calling at its ports, had been pressing for a worldwide ban to be enforced immediately.
      The IMO said it "did not represent a defeat" for the bloc's proposal as all the European Union countries had approved the new regulations and were involved in drawing up the timetable.
      "All the EU countries have been part of the process and every one of them voted and approved without a hint of deferral," the spokesman said.
      COMMISSION DELIGHTED
      EU Transport and Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio said in a statement: "I am delighted that the European proposals for safety, security and environmental standards will now be established and applied globally."
      She called on all IMO members to work together to enforce the new timetable.
      Under the new laws, the last phase-out date for all single-hulled oil tankers is 2010 instead of 2015, with the oldest, built in 1977 and earlier, taken out of service in April 2005.
      Some industry observers calculated that would amount to over 114 million tonnes of deadweight tanker tonnage destined for the scrap heap worldwide by 2010, representing hundreds of vessels.
      There are some compromises to the timetable, however.
      Individual nations, or flag states, could in some circumstances allow the operation of single-hull tankers to 2015 or the 25th anniversary of build so long as they pass a strict survey to make sure they are seaworthy and present no safety or environmental hazard.
      To complicate matters further IMO approved a resolution inviting all countries to apply the new rules to the transportation of the most polluting types of oil as soon as possible.
      On that score the European Commission said it would continue urging countries closest to the EU, in particular Russia and the Mediterranean partners, to enforce the ban on heavy grades of oil.
      Reuters earlier this week reported that a U.S. oil firm had hired an ageing single-hulled oil tanker similar to the doomed Prestige, the Geroi Sevastopolya, to carry 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil round the EU's coast and past Spain in the next week.
      Because the tanker is loading in Latvia, which is not an EU member, it is not flouting the ban and is perfectly entitled to continue its journey.
      Latvia on Friday said it had delayed the tanker's departure to allow EU maritime inspectors to thoroughly check the vessel.
      But Spain, fearful of another Prestige-type disaster, has alerted its Navy to keep the tanker away from its coastline and outside its Exclusive Economic Zone that extends 200 nautical miles out to sea.
      "This (IMO) decision comes at a critical time, as shows the importance of the Latvian authorities' action for an inspection of the single-hull tanker Geroi Sevastopolya," said Palacio.
      "Were the IMO's decision in force or Latvia already a member of the EU, she would not have been able to depart. Thanks to the Latvian's government action we will be able to make sure the ship is reasonably safe," she said.
      Latvia is one of 10 states due to join the EU next May and Palacio urged all new members to implement EU rules "from now ahead of accession on 1st May 2004."

      VILNIUS, Dec 6 (Reuters) -- Thousands rallied in Lithuania's capital on Saturday in the first public support for the country's president since a report accused him of links to Russian mobsters, paving the way for near-certain impeachment.
      President Rolandas Paksas said "God and the people" would protect him from the allegations contained in a parliamentary probe on Monday that declared him a security threat to the
      Baltic nation.
      On the streets of Vilnius, the angry crowd of at least 3,000 supporters of the president -- roughly similar in number to anti-Paksas rallies last week -- carried banners saying "Don't give in to the conspiracy!" and "President, we are with you!."
      Speakers deplored media and politicians who have called on Paksas, a former stunt pilot, to resign or face impeachment.
      "We cannot give into the brainwashing!" one speaker said to loud cheers from the crowd made up of mostly older people who travelled to the capital from the countryside.
      Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas warned Paksas his impeachment was inevitable, but lengthy proceedings might endanger Lithuania's entry into the European Union due in May.
      Brazauskas's centre-left ruling majority joined opposition parties in urging Paksas to quit this week after parliament's commission said the president had leaked sensitive information.
      "I am resolved to endure the impeachment process," Paksas said in an interview published in the Respublika newspaper.
      "A legal evaluation should prevail over the commission's political appraisal."
      FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL
      Paksas has fought for political survival since a secret service report in October said his office and some aides were linked to Russian organised crime and intelligence bodies.
      The accusations have embarrassed Lithuania and raised fears Russian gangsters would use the Baltic state as a springboard for illicit business across the enlarged EU.
      "The country's reputation and reliability are at stake," the prime minister told Respublika, adding that many existing EU states must still ratify the accession treaty.
      "If it quietens down by Christmas there will be more guarantees that (accession) will end successfully," he said.
      The political and intellectual elite, who decried Paksas as a radical right-wing populist in the election that brought him to power a year ago, now say he seeks Soviet-style dictatorship.
      "The elites have united against me, just like in the election," said Paksas. "But the will of God and of the people will prevail now like it did then."
      Paksas won the presidency on a wave of support among the many who lost out in the transition from communism to democracy and is still backed by many in the countryside.
      Maria Volaisiene, a middle-aged school worker, vowed to fight the elite, which she said had staged the scandal.
      "They sold Lithuania and this made beggars of us all," she said about the leading politicians. "But Paksas is a good man."

      BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- With a weekend deadline looming, European Union foreign ministers made little progress Monday in resolving major differences on a first-ever EU constitution between countries seeking greater integration and those who fear a European superstate.
      That means EU leaders will have to wrestle with the differences during their summit which begins Friday.
      "What we have left over now are the most serious issues for leaders," said French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin.
      The constitution is meant to streamline decision-making and reshape EU institutions to avoid gridlock after the 15-nation bloc takes in 10 new members, mainly from eastern Europe, on May 1. It must be adopted unanimously.
      With Spain and Poland threatening vetoes, new voting rules -- that more closely reflect national populations -- are the toughest issue and is "only going to get settled by the heads of state and government," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
      But Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who chaired the talks, said there would be "no compromise" in accommodating Polish and Spanish demands that pushed back advances in the constitution.
      "This presidency will not accept a compromise short of ambition," he said.
      Despite two months of work, the remaining deep divisions were highlighted Monday as foreign ministers haggled over how to bolster the EU's defense policy without endangering security ties with the United States in NATO or trampling on some countries' cherished neutrality.
      In an eleventh-hour appeal, neutral EU nations Sweden, Ireland, Finland and Austria objected strongly to a proposed mutual defense pledge, similar to NATO's, stating that if one EU member is attacked, the others are obliged to provide assistance.
      In a joint letter, the four said "formal binding security guarantees would be inconsistent with our security policy or with our constitutional requirements." They demanded the formal obligations be dropped.
      "We're not trying to water down anyone else's commitment ... we want to be accommodating," said Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen.
      Frattini said he would redraft the clause to reflect their concerns in a new proposal on Tuesday.
      But de Villepin warned Frattini not to water it down, suggesting an "opt-out" for the neutrals instead. "The solidarity as expressed in this clause must not be downgraded," he told reporters.
      Concerns also remain about how the bloc will make common decisions on foreign policy, with small nations worried about ceding power to larger ones.
      Those issues will be added to a pile of others that are likely to push the two-day summit into overtime.
      They range from whether the constitution should include a reference to God or Christianity to how many commissioners EU countries should sent to Brussels.
      "Let's hope that positions and spirits will change" to get a deal, said Luxembourg Foreign Minister Lydie Polfer.
      German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said "a bad deal was not an option," suggesting Germany would hold fast in defending the draft's call for greater integration against those afraid of ceding too much power to Brussels.
      "We need a decision that will ready the EU for the challenges," he said.
      Fischer's French counterpart agreed. "If ambitions are not high enough, maybe we should give ourselves more time," de Villepin said. "We cannot accept a text which is not ambitious."
      The largest threat to a final constitution deal are proposals to overhaul the EU's voting system.
      Poland and Spain are insisting the EU stick to a 2000 deal struck in Nice, France, that gave them 27 votes in EU decision-making, almost equal to much more populous nations such as Britain, France, Germany and Italy, which got 29 votes.
      The draft constitution suggest decisions be adopted if at least half the EU states, representing 60 percent of the bloc's population, are in favor.
      At Monday's meeting, Poland's European Affairs Minister, Danuta Huebner, said Warsaw "had not changed its position."
      If EU nations manage to adopt a constitution, it will have to be ratified by parliaments and referendums, with the aim of having the new charter take effect starting Jan. 1, 2005.
      The 10 states joining the EU in May are Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta and the Czech Republic.
      -- -- --
      On the Net:
      EU Constitution talks: http://ue.eu.int/igc/index.asp

      BRUSSELS, Dec 8 (Reuters) -- European Union leaders meet on Friday and Saturday to try to finalise a first constitution for an enlarged bloc, due to expand from 15 to 25 states next May.
      Here is a short chronology on the major treaties which formed the European Union and its forerunners.
       -- April 18, 1951: The treaty to create a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) is signed in Paris. Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany agree to place their coal and steel industries under a common authority.
       -- March 25, 1957: The same six countries sign treaties to create the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).
      The EEC Treaty of Rome aims to eliminate tariffs, quotas and other trade barriers between member countries and guarantee that persons, services and capital can move freely across borders.
      The Euratom treaty aims to promote the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
       -- April 8, 1965: The six countries sign the Merger Treaty to merge the executive institutions of the ECSC, EEC and Euratom, creating the European Community. It came into effect from July 1, 1967.
       -- Jan 1, 1973: Britain, Denmark and Ireland join the Community, taking membership to nine. Norway votes not to join.
       -- Jan 1, 1981: Greece becomes the 10th member.
       -- Jan 1, 1986: Spain and Portugal join.
       -- Feb 1986: EC countries sign the Single European Act that amends the EC treaties to speed up decision-making and facilitate the drive to create a border-free single market, expanding the use of majority voting.
       -- Nov 1, 1993: The Treaty on European Union, agreed in the Dutch town of Maastricht in Dec 1991, comes into force. The treaty establishes a new European Union, embracing the EC and its 12 member states.
      It calls for the creation of a single currency by 1999 and the development of a common foreign and security policy, while giving the European Parliament veto power over some legislation.
       -- Jan 1, 1995: Austria, Finland and Sweden join the European Union.
       -- March 26, 1995: EU members France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal sign the Schengen agreement to drop border controls with each other.
       -- June 1997: The Amsterdam Treaty amends the Treaty of the European Union agreed at Maastricht, creating the role of High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy.
       -- Dec 2000: The Nice Treaty, agreed at an acrimonious marathon summit, paves the way for the bloc's eastern enlargement.
       -- Dec 2002: EU leaders meeting in Copenhagen agree to admit 10 new members -- Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus and Malta -- in May 2004.
       -- Jan 31, 2003: The Nice Treaty comes into force. Its complex weighted voting system only applies from Jan 1, 2005.

      SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 9 (Reuters) -- Calpers should allow investment in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania even though the three Baltic countries are not on the fund's list of acceptable emerging markets, staff at the nation's largest pension fund urged on Tuesday.
      The investment committee of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, known as Calpers, will take up the recommendation next week. Calpers has assets of $154 billion.
      Calpers' staff have recommended that the pension invest 50 million euros in a Nordic real estate investment fund that includes property in the three Baltic countries.
      Last year, Calpers began to consider civil liberties, press freedom and political risk in making investment decisions after board members argued that investing in more stable countries with liberal practices would yield better long-term returns.
      Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have not been considered for the so-called permissible country list, however, because their equity markets are so small, staff said. The recommendation was posted on the pension fund's Web site as part of a monthly meeting agenda.
      Calpers' staff also said the investment in the three Baltic markets would be a maximum 7.5 million euros taken together.
      The Nordic fund will target primarily investments in the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway as well as the Baltic countries, Calpers' staff said.

      BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The European summit to forge a constitution for a united, post-Cold War Europe collapsed Saturday after leaders failed to agree on sharing power within an expanded European Union.
      The deal-breaker was a proposal to abandon a voting system accepted in 2000 that gave Spain and incoming EU member Poland almost as much voting power as Germany, which has a population equal to those two countries combined.
      European leaders sought to minimize the damage, saying talks would resume next year, but the debacle leaves the EU in turmoil as it prepares for one of the greatest challenges in it 46-year history -- accepting new members from the former Communist east.
      The failure scuttles, for the time being, the EU's plan for a new president, foreign minister and a greater profile on the global stage to rival that of the United States.
      It also raised doubts about the bloc's future direction and fears over its cohesion. French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder spoke of a core group of countries pressing ahead with closer integration -- a scenario others warned would divide the union.
      British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed for all to respect the "essential unity of Europe."
      Blair insisted the summit failure would not delay the expansion in which Poland and nine smaller nations will join the bloc on May 1, expanding it from 15 to 25 members.
      He said the differences could be overcome and the constitution adopted, but he suggested leaders would take at least several months before a breakthrough.
      "My best judgment is it's not an impossible mountain to climb, but I can't be sure," Blair told a news conference. "I don't think there's any point to rushing this before we have the basis of an agreement."
      After almost two years of preparations, the constitutional talks were sunk by the voting fight that pitted Germany and France against Spain and Poland.
      The fight revealed an unusual level of public animosity among the EU nations. Schroeder complained bitterly that nations "are representing their national interests and have left the European idea behind."
      Warning that an expanded EU could force Europe to "march to the slowest step," Chirac suggested a "pioneer group" of nations could move forward alone with closer cooperation on areas such as the economy, justice and defense.
      "It will be the motor. It will set the example, allow Europe to go faster, better," Chirac told a news conference.
      Others were dubious about such a "two-speed Europe."
      "I hope that no country will take measures to try to divide Europe," Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said.
      In Warsaw, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said the Europeans needed "new ideas for a compromise" as well as mutual trust.
      "We must have more trust in each other," Kwasniewski said in a statement. "Poland will be active in that process (and) will cooperate with France, Germany and Britain."
      "If all sides want to keep their positions, then my imagination tells me bad scenarios," Krasniewski added. "Then we will have a two-speed Europe."
      The leaders managed some successes on the first day of summit Friday -- boosting the EU's military planning capability independent of NATO and setting up a $75 billion investment plan for public works projects to lift economic recovery.
      They also resolved a three-year dispute over the location of 10 new EU agencies, ranging from a European Police Collage in London to a Food Safety Agency in Parma, Italy.
      However, it was impossible to put a positive gloss on the meeting as its chair, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi abandoned the talks before the expected late-night marathon session, usually favored by EU dealmakers.
      Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen called the outcome "a sad day for Europe."
      A plan backed by France and Germany would replace the EU's complex, population-based voting system with a formula under which key decisions could be passed by a simple majority of 13 of the 25 members -- if they represent 60 percent of the EU's population.
      Spain and Poland said the proposal concentrated too much power in the hands of EU's big four -- Germany, France, Britain and Italy. They want to keep a system that gives them almost as many votes as Germany, the union's biggest member.
      "We're talking about compromise or domination" said Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz. Declaring he was fighting for all the smaller nations, Prime Minister Leszek Miller defied doctors' orders to attend the meeting just days after surviving a helicopter crash that broke two vertebrae in his back.
      The union still has to settle what issues would be covered by the voting system, though it would likely include the EU budget, environmental regulations and certain parts of foreign policy matters -- a list that could be expanded in the future.
      Without agreement, the voting system adopted three years ago at a summit in the French Riviera resort of Nice will take effect when Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus and Malta join the EU in May.
      However, leaders said a constitution will eventually be needed to manage the EU's affairs efficiently when it has so many members.
      The 464-article draft charter boils down 80,000 pages of accumulated treaties and agreements into one simplified rule book for the bloc, giving it new powers designed to endow it with political weight to match Europe's economic clout.
      Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who takes over the EU presidency from Italy on Jan. 1, said he would sound out members and make a report at the next summit, in March.

      WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Four Latvian climbers plunged hundreds of feet to their deaths on Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest peak, police said Wednesday.
      A guide found the bodies of three men and a woman early Wednesday. Police said they did not known whether the four were climbing up or down the mountain when they fell.
      "The three males and one female appear to have taken a massive fall from near the summit of Mt. Cook," Constable Brent Swanson said in a written statement.
      "All had suffered massive trauma indicating a fall of at least 300 meters," or about 1,000 feet, Swanson said. "They were most likely roped together, however one was found unroped when rescuers arrived at the scene."
      Swanson said it was to early to speculate on what caused them to fall, adding weather conditions had been excellent in the area.
      Rescuers in helicopters recovered the bodies and took them from the mountain to a nearby village for identification, he said. Interpol would was to advise their families in Latvia.
      Guided climbs on the 12,349-foot mountain have become increasingly popular since the 1994 centenary of its first successful ascent.
      But the mountain has taken a heavy toll, with at least 95 climbers dying on it in the past 75 years.
      Mount Cook is located on New Zealand's South Island, 430 miles southwest of the capital, Wellington.

      GENEVA (Reuters) -- The United Nations' push to transform the developing world into tech-ready nations could partly backfire, delegates to an IT summit aimed at bridging the "digital divide" said on Thursday.
      The overwhelming consensus at the U.N.-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) summit this week is that bringing the Internet and telecoms innovations to the world's poor is a noble cause that needs embracing now.
      But there are unpredictable consequences that also need to be considered, experts said.
      "There are a number of non-trivial issues that come with overcoming the digital divide," said Alan Greenberg, a Canadian IT consultant who works with the World Bank on programs aimed at bringing new technologies to the developing world.
      "Security is one of them. Whether it be viruses or worms, or various forms of fraud, they will be coming to developing countries too. There are no barriers," he said.
      The need for international measures to fight computer virus outbreaks and step up prosecution of "cybercriminals" has been a constant topic of the three-day event -- particularly among representatives of the developed world.
      This cautionary note contrasts sharply with the pleas from heads of state in poorer countries for the West to urgently step up technological aid to developing countries.
      THE NEW ELDERS
      Bridging the gap between the technology "haves" and "have nots" is a crusade that began in the late 1990s, and this summit is testament to its slow but steady progress.
      The U.N.'s ambition is to help eradicate poverty and create stable state democracies by using new technologies to improve access to vital information.
      Poor communities from India to Nepal can report success stories of how the Internet has brought advances in farming, schools and healthcare.
      But the march of technology has had some unforeseen social consequences too, as news written in languages incomprehensible to all but a few gets beamed in daily.
      One Indian fishing village in the Tamil Nadu region that relies on the Internet for weather updates has one terminal for 7,000 inhabitants, said Rajamohan KG, an advisor for the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, a tech aid group.
      Because the children have -- like everywhere else -- the greatest facility with the Internet, they often have access to information vital to the village's fishermen. "They are respected, like the village elders," he said. Others called the English-language-dominated Internet a potential threat if it fails to reflect the planet's diversity.
      "I cannot fail to mention the importance of using the information society to maintain our planet's rich linguistic and cultural diversity," Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga told UN delegates in an address on Wednesday.
      Other dignitaries used the occasion to urge software developers to embrace open-source software programs, or customizable computer applications that can be tweaked into a local language of configured for specific needs.
      But open source software, while cheap or free to install, has its drawbacks, as one delegate from SchoolNetAfrica (www.schoolnetafrica.net) pointed out.
      Sara Kyofuna, a spokeswoman for the group that is looking for a donation of a million PCs for the continent's classrooms, said open source software is too complicated for some schools to run, and, if something goes wrong, there are no support staff.
      "Problems arise. We now know that if something works in Uganda, in Mozambique it will frustrate you to zero," Kyofuna said.

      TALLINN, Estonia (AP) -- Some key figures in the Baltic states want the United States to reverse a planned decision to halt daily broadcasts of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, insisting the station first set up during the Cold War remains a valuable resource.
      American officials said last month that the U.S.-financed broadcaster would drop its schedule of programming that reaches Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, as well Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovakia, by the end of the year.
      Instead, resources will be focused on troubled regions like Iraq and Afghanistan.
      But some said the radio broadcasts still fill a need, despite the Baltics' independence amid the 1991 Soviet collapse.
      Former Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said Friday that a political scandal involving President Rolandas Paksas' alleged ties to organized crime illustrated the need for outside news sources.
      "These broadcasts are especially important to Lithuania today, when a political crisis is rocking the country," he said. "The radio should continue with its mission."
      Paksas, who faces likely impeachment, has denied the claims.
      Baltic governments appeared to have accepted the U.S. decision -- even though many conceded that they would have preferred a year's delay, if not longer.
      "Sure, we'll miss the international news of RFE," said Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Estonian parliament's foreign affairs committee. "But it had to happen sooner or later. It's understood RFE's meant for countries that have problems with freedom of speech. Ours doesn't."
      "We are a democratic country now and we can't demand that the U.S. Congress goes on financing this service," concurred Guntars Krasts, a leader in Latvia's coalition government.
      But Mari-Ann Kelam, a recent Estonian parliamentarian, said she was lobbying for RFE's Estonian-service to stay on the air.
      "U.S. international broadcasting as a public diplomacy tool is cost-effective and cheap, by U.S. budgetary standards," she said. "There is growing anti-Americanism throughout Europe which is expanding, unfortunately, to the Baltic States as well."
      Uldis Grava, head of Latvia's state-run television, agreed.
      "Even though the Baltic states are more stable than the Balkans, for instance, democracy and free enterprise still need to be supported and strengthened for some time to allow them to truly take hold," said Grava, a Latvian-American who once headed RFE's Latvian-language service.
      -- -- --
      On the Net:
      Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: http://www.rferl.org

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- Latvians mourned the death of celebrated mountain climber Teodors Kirsis, who died with his daughter and two others in an accident during an expedition on New Zealand's Mount Cook. He was 61.
      A guide found the bodies of the four Latvians -- Kirsis, his daughter Evija Kirse, Ilmars Bernans and Aivars Prosenkovs -- early Wednesday in New Zealand.
      They appeared to have fallen from near the summit, but it wasn't clear if they were ascending or descending at the time, New Zealand police said.
      Kirsis, one of this ex-Soviet Baltic republic's most accomplished climbers, was awarded Latvia's highest state medal -- the Three Star Order -- after climbing the highest peak in each of the seven continents in 2002. He was one of the oldest climbers ever to achieve that feat.
      "Teodors is Mr. Alpine in Latvia -- he's the grandfather and godfather of it all," said Juris Ulmanis, a Latvian businessman who had climbed with Kirsis. "It's really a great loss."
      Kirsis and Bernans were given the honorary title of "snow leopards" -- given to those who reached the Soviet Union's four highest mountains.
      Latvia, a country of 2.3 million people, regained independence amid the 1991 Soviet collapse.
      Kirsis had a reputation during Soviet times as a climber who sometimes liked to deviate from pre-planned routes, though he was not seen as a risk-taker, according to Ulmanis.
      "This is a tragic day for Latvia and for all Latvian climbers," said Janis Busenbergs, another of Kirsis' former climbing partners. "We don't know what happened yet and have to wait for the facts to come out. But it's hard to believe this could have happened."
      At least 95 climbers have died on the 12,349-foot (3,800-meter) Mount Cook in the past 75 years. It's on New Zealand's South Island, 430 miles (700 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Wellington.
      Kirsis is survived by his wife Aina-Lilija and daughter Karena.

      STOCKHOLM, Dec 10 (Reuters) -- The Nordic region's biggest telecoms operator TeliaSonera said on Wednesday it was close to starting talks on increasing its stakes in two Latvian subsidiaries.
      TeliaSonera now has 49 percent in fixed-line operator Lattelekom and 60 percent in mobile operator LMT, while the rest belongs to the Latvian government.
      TeliaSonera Chief Executive Anders Igel visited Latvia on Tuesday and met with government officials with a view to raising stakes in both companies to full ownership.
      "I have reasons to be more optimistic today," TeliaSonera's head of Baltic operations, Kenneth Karlberg, told journalists. "We have no response yet, but there are signs that we are very close.
      "How much they would want to sell we don't know. Of course we would like to have 100 percent, but we are ready to discuss this," Karlberg said.
      TeliaSonera's business has been growing fast in the Baltic countries, where mobile and fixed-line saturation are still relatively low compared with TeliaSonera's main market in Sweden, where nine out of 10 people have a mobile phone and where overall sales are declining.
      Karlberg also said TeliaSonera was still looking for an acquisition in Denmark, although its options narrowed after the purchase by Norway's Telenor of a stake in Danish operator Sonofon, announced on Wednesday.
      "Now what is left is (the Danish subsidiary of) Orange, but they have not said that they wanted to sell the business. There are also a number of service providers," Karlberg said.