Disarray means no deal may be best deal on EU's way forward

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder seems to have a knack for being ambushed by events.

After the surprise departure of his finance minister, Oskar Lafontaine, and the embarrassing resignation of the European Commission, comes the breakdown of peace talks over Kosovo.

Mr Schroeder may - just - have managed to bring the crisis at the European Commission under control, having pre-arranged a solution with his European Union counterparts in intensive discussions in their capitals and by telephone. But the secrecy surrounding the proceedings suggests there may still be disagreements which could blow up at the summit.

However, the situation in the Balkans threatens to hijack this week's European Union summit in Berlin and distract government leaders and their foreign ministers from the main business of the meeting.

Some time may also have to be spent on further discussions of whether next week's cancelled meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) should be allowed to go ahead after all.

The Europe-Asia Meeting (Asem) foundered over Europe's refusal to allow Burma to take part. Concerned over human rights under Burma's military regime, Europe refuses to grant visas to senior Rangoon officials and bars high-level contacts with the regime. But Asean members repeated last week they would not take part in any meeting from which one of them was excluded.