Leading European politicians gave a broad welcome to Saturday's deal on a treaty to reform the European Union, but there was some dissent.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende said he was "pleased" with the agreement, which provides for the replacement of the EU constitution rejected by Dutch and French voters two years ago.

"It is a good and a new treaty. Holland and Europe can use it to move on," Balkenende said, adding that "the treaty has been changed and the discussion about the constitution has been closed."

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: "I am very, very pleased. Now we can concentrate our efforts once more on the daily problems that really mean something."

"We have avoided a crisis," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in an interview due to appear on Sunday in German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "Uncertainty about our future treaty has cast a shadow of doubt over our ability to act. Now those doubts have been removed."

'Efficient' at least

"Maybe it was not the most beautiful lyrics we have adopted, said Barroso immediately after the deal was clinched shortly before daybreak, but it is "efficient prose."

These views were echoed by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, who complained that the text had been "disfigured" by footnotes and annexes designed to make it easier for leaders to sell at home.

"The constitutional treaty was an easily understandable treaty. This is a simplified treaty which is very complicated," said Luxembourg's prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said the treaty agreement had made Europe "stronger" but criticized Britain for "pulling the breaks" on a more ambitious deal.

The former EU Commission head accused Prime Minister Tony Blair's government of promoting "a different idea of Europe" and hinted that a two-speed EU might emerge in the future.

Britain was granted opt-outs of a charter setting out citizens' social and economic rights as well as taking part in EU cooperation on police and judicial matters.

Praise for Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was praised for her handling of the tense and often difficult negotiations, which saw a threat by Poland to use its veto if it didn't get its way on voting rights.

"She took into consideration the special wishes of several countries in an elegant manner," said Finnish President Matti Vanhanen after the marathon talks ended in Brussels.

"Without her this result would not have been possible," Hans-Gert Pöttering, president of the EU parliament, was quoted as telling German Sunday newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

Pöttering said the new EU treaty preserved much of the substance of the draft buried after its rejection in referendums in the Netherlands and France in 2005.

Approvals

The new treaty, designed to make the EU more effective, drops the word constitution as well as any references to statehood such as a national anthem and flag. It also incudes a new majority voting system as well as the post of EU president and a high representative in charge of foreign affairs.

Under the timetable agreed at the Brussels summit, leaders of the 27-nation bloc will hold an intergovernmental conference later this year to give formal approval to the treaty. Portgual, which takes on the EU presidency in July, says it would like to approve the treaty at an October summit.

After that the ratification process will begin so that the treaty can be in place to coincide with elections to the European parliament in the summer of 2009.