Commission president, Romano Prodi, is visiting Dublin in a bid to drum up support for the EU.

The trip has generated conflicting newspaper reports with the Mail claiming a Prodi "u-turn" over the EU's "business as usual" approach following Ireland's referendum rejection of the Nice Treaty.

The newspaper reports a "startling u-turn" with a Prodi admission that the agreement of the Irish people had thrown EU enlargement plans into disarray.

The Telegraph, however, reports Prodi as saying Irish consent to Nice was not a legal necessity for enlargement to proceed as planned.

On a "listening" trip to Ireland's capital, Prodi expressed his concern that the vote against the Nice represented a broader anti-EU shift in Irish public opinion.

"I tried to observe the campaign and it was a campaign on sentiments. So the problem is, has the Irish attitude towards Europe changed? This is my real point. It is even more serious than a No to Nice," he said.