MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Compromise candidates for EU president and Foreign policy chief

Baroness Ashton and Herman Van Rompuy

European Union leaders have opted for little-known compromise candidate, Belgium premier Herman Van Rompuy, to become the bloc's first full-time president, diplomats have said.

The 27 leaders also agreed to appoint Britain's EU commissioner Baroness Ashton as the EU's new foreign policy chief, replacing Spaniard Javier Solana. Baroness Ashton has been the union's trade commissioner since last year.

The appointments suggested the need for compromise outweighed the desire for a big name such as former UK PM Tony Blair, who was once considered a leading contender for the presidential job.

The two new officials are intended to give the EU a bigger role in such global issues as climate change, terrorism and trade amid the rise of China, Brazil and India.

The two top jobs were created by an EU reform treaty that takes effect in less than two weeks, on December 1. The treaty is vague on what the EU president is supposed to do, other than encourage more European integration.

While the EU president was initially seen as the bigger job, much attention has shifted to the foreign minister, who gets a say over the bloc's annual 7 billion Euro foreign aid budget and will head a new 5.000-strong EU diplomatic corps.

Baroness Ashton, who has never been elected to public office and is largely unknown outside the UK, won the foreign policy brief after Prime Minister Gordon Brown and left-leaning leaders from Spain, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, Portugal and Austria decided to put her name forward.

She was a junior minister and leader of the House of Lords in 2007 and had a history as an anti-nuclear weapons campaigner.

Van Rompuy was nominated for the president's job by Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who chaired Thursday's summit.