Split EU sets 2008 deadline for charter decision

BRUSSELS, June 16 (Reuters) European Union leaders today put off until 2008 the hard decisions on what do with the bloc's stalled constitution, thrown out last year by French and Dutch voters.

Split on the fate of the charter, prime ministers and presidents decided instead to push ahead with projects they hope will restore the credibility of the EU, for example in a more coordinated energy policy and on asylum.

''They don't want to run the risk of a second failure,'' European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said of the decision to leave the treaty's fate in the balance. He called for an end to speculation over whether the treaty was dead.

''Dead or alive is good for gangster films,'' he said.

The constitution needs approval of all the EU's 25 members to take effect. A majority of countries see it as vital to reforming the overloaded institutions of the steadily growing bloc. But a minority would prefer to ditch it.

''We prolonged the period of reflection precisely because we have not got any solutions for getting out of this,'' said French President Jacques Chirac, whose prestige took a huge blow in the referendum rejection of the constitution in France.

The charter provides for a long-term EU president and foreign minister and a simpler voting system taking more account of population size.

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