Leaders settled in for a long night of negotiations on the €1,000bn seven-year EU budget last night, but the early signs suggested that Ireland’s share of agriculture payments was safe.

The EU budget summit in Brussels is the last chance to shake up European farm spending for a decade, Oxfam warned.

The Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, will chair his third meeting in the Irish Presidency of the Council of Economics and Finance Ministers of the EU (Ecofin Council) in Brussels tomorrow.