Portugal PM mulls EC president bid

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso will decide today whether to accept an offer to become president of the European Commission (EC), Lusa news agency reported yesterday.

The centre-right leader met President Jorge Sampaio amid media reports he might become head the EC, the executive arm of the 25-nation European Union (EU).

"Durao Barroso has the consensus of leaders of the European Union and will be formally invited in the next few hours (to take the EC job) by" Bertie Ahern, the Irish prime minister and EU president, an official spokesman told Lusa.

Spokesmen for Durao Barroso were not available to comment. Durao Barroso left the presidential palace after the hour-long meeting with Sampaio and did not speak to reporters.

European Union diplomats in Brussels said Mr Durao Barroso, a Social Democrat, was gaining ground as a candidate to head the EU as other names withdrew or fell by the wayside.

Mr Ahern said yesterday he was confident EU leaders would agree on a commission president at a special summit on Tuesday.

A Sampaio spokesman said the president and Mr Durao Barroso met at the presidential palace to "analyse the political situation in the widest sense possible".

He declined to say whether the two discussed the leadership of the EU.

Quoting political sources, private TSF radio said Mr Durao Barroso would accept an invitation to succeed Romano Prodi as president of the EC. Mr Durao Barroso had put two conditions on becoming a candidate - that his selection be unanimous and that there be no early elections, state radio RDP said.

The next parliamentary elections are scheduled for 2006. Durao Barroso's Social Democrats were beaten by Socialists in European Parliament elections this month.

Mr Durao Barroso said on Wednesday he was not a candidate to head the Commission.