BRUSSELS - European Union leaders met Thursday hoping to lift the final obstacle to the long-awaited Lisbon reform treaty and pave the way for the EU to name its first president.

Over two days of talks in Brussels, the EU's Swedish presidency was to fine tune a response to 11th hour demands by the deeply eurosceptic Czech president, Vlaclav Klaus, so the massive reform package can enter force next year.

The EU leaders were also to seek agreement on how to share the costs of the battle against climate change.

Here too consensus may prove elusive, with less wealthy central and eastern European nations unwilling to give money for the developing world to fight climate change.

In the corridors and in bilateral meetings, attention focused on candidates to become the first EU president, with former British premier Tony Blair a front-runner, along with Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker.

"We Britain, are supporting Tony Blair," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters. "We would like him to be a candidate."

While no decisions on the new top job are expected, the leaders could reveal their level of ambition for the post if Blair, a charismatic and savvy orator, is dropped for a lesser light.

"Europe's decision about what role it wants to play in the world is going to be critical, for whether or not people come forward as candidates, and then who gets the job," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Ahead of the talks, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said there was no point discussing names until all 27 nations had ratified the Lisbon Treaty, which creates the EU top job.

"There are still obstacles to... ratification which lie in the Czech Republic," he said. "We cannot solve it at a meeting at the European Council.

A group of Czech parliamentarians, many from the party Klaus founded, have launched an appeal against the treaty with the Czech Constitutional Court. The court is expected to rule on November 3.

Klaus, meanwhile, demands that his country be given an opt-out of the EU's rights charter, similar to the one given Britain and Poland, although Reinfeldt appears to have a compromise that avoids re-opening ratification elsewhere.

Given the stalemate, the Swedish leader insisted it was best to focus on the main topic of climate change.

"This is a meeting on policy, not on names," he said. "We have not opened consultations on names and we will not open for informal discussions on names tonight either."

But opinions on the subject were not hard to find, and leaders from Belgium, Hungary, Luxembourg and Spain suggested they would not back Blair, whose country is neither in the euro currency group nor the Schengen no-borders zone.

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the job should go to "a convinced European, with a European vocation to strengthen the Union and all that is common about it."

Experts have called for a figure who would labour behind the scenes to unite the EU's three institutions -- the council representing the 27 member nations, the executive European Commission and the European parliament.

On Wednesday, Latvia and its Baltic neighbour Lithuania announced that they would push former head of state Vaira Vike-Freiberga's candidacy.

Meanwhile Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, another name mentioned for the EU president's post, ruled himself out, while former Irish premier John Bruton joined the running.

"I would prefer we find a chairwoman. We need gender equality," EU parliament President Jerzy Buzek said.

A qualified majority of nations would technically be required to elect the new president, but diplomats say the leaders are keen to reach a consensus decision.