Ahern to tour Scandinavian, Baltic countries

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, is due to embark on a three-day tour of Scandinavian and Baltic countries today to lay the groundwork for the resumption of negotiations on the proposed EU constitution.

The negotiations are due to resume later this month after collapsing last year due to disagreements about voting rights and the make-up of the European Commission.

Mr Ahern has spent much of the Irish presidency of the EU trying to create the conditions for a resumption of talks.

He is due to visit Sweden, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania over the next three days as part of his efforts to ensure that agreement can be reached on the outstanding issues.