EU grapples to stay united

But most observers agree that few quick fixes are in view after one of the most poisonous meetings of European Union chiefs since the Iraq war split them asunder two years ago.

The sense of crisis, triggered by French and Dutch "no" votes on the constitution barely three weeks ago but radically deepened by the summit, was underlined by comments warning against a "break-up" of the bloc Sunday.

"We need to think together, but debate openly, in a consensual way and without a break-up, on what we want for Europe in five years, 10 years, 30 or 50 years," said French Europe Minister Catherine Colonna.

The two-day Brussels summit, which broke up amid spectacularly angry words in the early hours of Saturday morning, could have been so different.

Only a month ago it was being billed as a tough but entirely manageable regular meeting aimed at hammering out the 25-nation's budget plans for 2007-2013 period.

But then came the double French and then Dutch ballot blows, effectively ditching overnight a constitution which had been nearly four years in the writing and was meant to prevent decision-making gridlock in the still-expanding bloc.

Last week's summit in theory kept the project alive while putting the ratification process on hold -- but few observers have any illusions about the prospects for reviving the all-but-dead charter.

"People will tell you next that Europe is not in a crisis," Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who holds the EU presidency, said as the summit disintegrated in acrimony.

"It is in a deep crisis."

Far from bridging a credibility gap between the European bureaucracy and its citizens, the summit exposed deeply antagonistic visions of the EU future among the leaders themselves.

"During this budgetary debate there were two conceptions of Europe that clashed and will always clash," said Juncker.

"There are those who, in fact without saying it, want the big market and nothing but the big market -- a high-level free trade zone -- and those that want a politically integrated Europe," he said.

"I have felt for a long time this debate would blow up one day."

Britain, which takes over the EU presidency July 1, sneered at the big-Europe vision.

"It is essentially a division between whether you want a European Union that is able to cope with the future or whether you want a European Union that is trapped in the past," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.

A resolution to the budget had been blocked, notably by Britain's refusal to bow to demands by the other 24 EU members that it at least freeze a rebate it receives from the EU, worth 5.3 billion euros last year.

But British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who now faces the mammoth task of leading his colleagues for the next six months, denied being isolated at the summit.

The British leader had insisted that negotiations on the EU's budget-consuming farm subsidy system, which favours France, be re-opened before he would consider curbing the British rebate.