Political race
A week before a key summit, Europe's leaders are struggling to agree on who should fill the EU's new president and foreign policy supremo posts, with many countries putting names forward and one front-runner dropping out.
British Foreign Secretary Miliband, who had recently appeared favourite to become the European Union's foreign policy supremo, pulled out of the running on Wednesday saying he would "stay and fight" a general election at home next year.
Meanwhile the Belgian press on Thursday suggested that the chances of its Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, seen as a frontrunner for the EU Council President post, were being diluted as more names are mooted.
"Has (Herman) Van Rompuy's chance gone?" the Belgian daily Le Soir asked.
"The doubts are there now; our prime minister remains a front-runner but the game's getting complicated," the paper said.
London is still putting forward former premier Tony Blair for the EU president's job, but he seems to have joined the ranks of former favourites amid resistance from France, Germany and others who believe Britain has not sufficiently embraced the European project.
"The situation is quite depressing," one British diplomat said. "We were offered one job on a plate, with a chance of the other job and now we may end up with a combination which we don't much like."
The posts of EU Council president and foreign policy supremo are designed to give Europe a stronger and more unified voice in the world.
Both are enshrined in the EU's Lisbon Treaty which was finally ratified this month after a long and difficult gestation.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, admitted Wednesday that initial talks with his fellow European leaders had succeeded only in making the lists of names longer.
With some countries proposing "more than one" candidate, "it's very easy to see that the paper then becomes very long," he bemoaned, after announcing a November 19 summit to settle the issue.
Reinfeldt said there was a very delicate diplomatic balancing act to be achieved between candidates from left and right, north and south, east and west, bigger and smaller nations, and between men and women.
Other names have also surfaced for the top job, including Dutch PM Jan Peter Balkenende, his Luxembourg counterpart Jean-Claude Juncker and Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
"I am ready for this job," the 72-year-old Latvian leader declared in an interview Thursday with the Spanish daily El Mundo, which suggested that London could back the US-friendly right-winger if Blair is ruled out.
She is one of the few women being mentioned for either job, which would satisfy Reinfeldt's criteria of a mix of the sexes and of east and west.
As the lists get longer, the assumed favourites see their chances weaken.
While Van Rompuy has never officially declared his intentions he had reached the point of searching for a replacement as premier.
"The problem is that Van Rompuy is considered by some countries as a Franco-German appointee. The British position will be vital in the end," one European diplomat said.
The European Socialists have said they want the foreign policy job and not the presidency -- which is less defined and could end up as a kind of in-house facilitator and consensus-builder.
With Miliband out of the picture they appear to be pinning their hopes on leftist Italian ex-PM Massimo D'Alema.
"I don't see any other socialist candidate emerging with the same kind of support as Mr D'Alema," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in Bucharest Thursday.
The only clear thing is that there is political horse-trading to be done.