Europe's leaders have sought to defuse a bitter quarrel with Britain's David Cameron as they gathered for an emotionally-charged remembrance ceremony in Ypres, the scene of horrific carnage in World War I.
As Europe recalled on the conflict's centenary what happens when leaders fail to preserve peace, Germany's Angela Merkel urged her peers to compromise with Cameron as he heads for defeat in a row over who will be the European Union's next chief executive.
"I think we can find compromises here and make a step towards Great Britain," Merkel said.
"I repeatedly spoke of a European spirit which is needed and which will help us to find good solutions," she added.
Cameron's vocal campaign against naming ex Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker to head the powerful European Commission goes to the wire on Friday, when the bloc's 28 leaders put it to an unprecedented vote at his demand.
Cameron has been abandoned by key allies in the fight against Juncker, including Sweden and the Netherlands, triggering fears his isolation could reinforce a growing push in Britain to exit the EU.
Keen to avoid public signs of friction at the Ypres ceremony, European Council president Herman Van Rompuy has urged leaders to keep the Juncker dispute off the table at commemorations of the 1914-1918 war in the small Belgian town.
"This is not about the end of the war, or any battle or victory," Van Rompuy said as Europe's leaders stood in a memorial garden built on the city's fortifications to remember the war dead.
"It is about how it could start, about the mindless march to the abyss, about the sleepwalking. Above all, about the millions who were killed on all sides, on all fronts."
Cameron says the European Commission president should be chosen by the elected heads of government and heads of state on the European Council.
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