EU Starts Consultations for New President Shortlist

Sweden's prime minister, the current chair of EU summits, says he is half-way through consultations to determine a shortlist for the new EU top jobs.

Fredrik Reinfeldt said he expected to be ready soon to call a special EU summit to appoint the permanent EU president and foreign policy chief.

The Belgian Prime Minister, Herman van Rompuy, has emerged as a frontrunner for the post of EU president, the BBC reported.

Besides Van Rompuy, leading candidates for the job are said to include Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and his Luxembourg counterpart Jean-Claude Juncker.

The centre-left former Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema is a frontrunner for the new post of High Representative for Foreign Affairs. Whoever gets that job will also become vice president of the European Commission.

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband is not seeking the foreign affairs job.

He had been seen as a frontrunner for the job - among the institutional changes created by the Lisbon Treaty - even though he had said he was not "available".