EU leaders survey the wreckage

Jack Straw, foreign secretary (minister) of Britain, widely blamed for the collapse of budget talks, said Sunday that the European Union was embroiled in the worst crisis he had seen since entering the British government eight years ago but that it also represented an opportunity for change.

"It's certainly a crisis -- it's the worst crisis that I've seen during my four years as foreign secretary, indeed my more than eight years as a member of this government," Straw said.

"I believe that we both have a duty and an opportunity here to turn it into a catharsis from which greater good comes," he said.

Most observers agreed that few quick fixes were in view after one of the most ill-tempered meetings of European Union chiefs since the divisions caused by the US-led invasion of Iraq two years ago.