"The issues that are outstanding are those of fine detail," said Irish Europe Minister Dick Roche.

Only the "final finessing of the endpoints" remained, Roche said outside the summit talks in Brussels.

The reported deal came after the UK and France had publicly criticised each other over the slow progress.

France said the UK was making too many demands for special treatment, while London opposes Paris's choice for a new European Commission president.

But both Germany and France said they would back a compromise constitutional draft put forward by Ireland - current holder of the EU presidency.

Agreement has also been reached on one of the issues that torpedoed constitutional talks last year - resistance by smaller nations to plans for new voting rules.

The new plan says measures must have the backing of at least 55% of EU states, representing at least 65% of the total population, in order to pass.

"The atmosphere is very, very positive," Roche said - a day after wrangles over the constitution and who should succeed Romano Prodi as commission president spilled into the second and final day of talks.

Earlier, Catherine Colonna, a spokeswoman for French President Jacques Chirac, said France had been pushed as far as it would go over the constitution.

The UK is believed to have won concessions on its concerns such as preserving national vetoes.

Ms Colonna said: "We will not agree to further dilute what has been proposed by the Irish presidency. We have to stop the backsliding."

Her comments followed remarks on Thursday by Chirac himself who said the EU had to "avoid being blocked by a single country" - seen by observers as a veiled attack on Britain for its threat to veto the constitution's text if it cedes power to Brussels in key areas.

A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair hit back at that, saying: "It was unfortunate that President Chirac chose to attack our position before the negotiations had begun."

Correspondents note that spats between the UK and France are nothing new.

The UK is also at odds with both France and Germany over a successor to Prodi who steps down as head of the commission when his five-year term ends in October.

France and Germany have backed Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, but Britain opposes him on the grounds that he could be too eager to make the EU more federal.