The European Council, or the summit of the European Union (EU) leaders, opened in Brussels Friday morning at the EU headquarters.

The key agenda of the two-day summit is to discuss and try to finalize a draft constitution for the bloc, which will be expanded to 25 members in May 2004.

Currently disputes still exist on some key issues such as the voting system and the makeup of European Commission (EC), defense among the members and would-be members of the EU.

"The voting system is the obstacle that can block the whole agreement, and that's a pity," said Italian Prime Minister Silivio Berlusconi when welcoming other EU leaders prior to the summit.

At present, Germany and France said the voting rights should reflect population size while Poland and Spain defend their current disproportionate voting power.

The EU summit will hold an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) Friday evening and Saturday to focus on settling the disputes on the draft constitution.

According to the agenda of the meeting, some bilateral contacts will be held to narrow the rifts on the draft prior to the IGC.

In a note handed out to the EU leaders, Italy, which is currently holding the EU presidency, expressed the willingness to make comprises on some disputes on the draft constitution.

It will "respond to specific concerns expressed by some delegations" without losing the "advantages" of the proposal of the Convention on the future of Europe (Convention), which upholds "the qualified majority voting system".

On the size of the EC, the Italian Presidency proposed to reduce the number of the EC members "from a given date".

The Convention proposed to cut the number of the EC members from current 20 to 15, while some EU member states argued that each member should have one member in the EC.

The two-day summit will also cover other issues like defense, economy growth and enlargement.

(Xinhua News Agency Dec 13, 2003)