Tony Blair has travelled to Italy in a bid to stop a rift over reform of the EU.

The prime minister was in Rome on Thursday to persuade Silvio Berlusconi to back plans for a new powerful EU Commission vice-president to speed up economic reform.

"Clearly there will be discussion inevitably about the trilateral," said Downing Street referring to last month's Berlin summit.

Downing Street admitted that Thursday's meeting had been hurriedly agreed between the two men after the gathering with France and Germany's leaders.

Their meeting comes ahead of the next European summit, to be chaired by the Irish presidency, later this month.

Plans for the new commissioner were outlined after the mini-summit last month between Blair, French president Jacques Chirac and German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Berlin.

But Berlusconi warned he would veto any plan that did not involve Italy.

So the prime minister has launched a charm offensive to ensure wider support for his plans.

But Number 10 sought to play down differences.

"The Berlin summit was not about creating a leader group in Europe. It's important to recognise that countries are going to meet bilaterally and trilaterally," said the prime minister's spokesman.

"It's important to form alliances and keep relations strong across the community."

Blair wants to see economic and social reform pushed further up the EU agenda during Ireland's presidency, despite the current concerns over the new constitution.

Tsar

The new tsar would dismantle remaining barriers to the single market, particularly in the energy and telecoms sectors.

The prime minister also wants the new position become a watchdog on EU directives to cut red tape that hits business. 

Berlusconi raised the issue of the stalled constitution talks which foundered after a dispute over voting rights for the new accession countries.

He has argued that unless negotiations are restarted soon the momentum will be lost.

Britain remains relaxed about the issue - with Jack Straw insisting that the final deadline is years away and that as the EU could function without difficulty there is no need to hurry into a deal.

But Downing Street paid tribute to the "large amount of work" put into the issue by Italy during its presidency.