There are areas where we would have liked to have seen further progress

Robin Cook

But, as leaders were distracted by the UK's foot-and-mouth outbreak and events in the Balkans, disagreements about the pace and scale of reform remained unresolved.

Agreement was achieved on creating a single financial market across the member states.

Alongside progress on business regulations and a single European patent Mr Cook insisted: "All of those were gains".

But Britain was frustrated from achieving progess on two pet projects: streamlining Europe's air traffic control and liberalising energy markets.

Prime Minister Tony Blair wants a single system for controlling flights in European airspace to cut delays.

But that deal was deadlocked by a long running dispute with Spain over the status of Gibraltar's airport.

French concerns

A drive for freer competition in the electricity and gas industries was blocked by France, which has concerns over the effect on prices and customer service.

Mr Cook said: "There are areas where we would have liked to have seen further progress, for instance on energy liberalisation.

"We did get a commitment to back the commission's proposals. That's useful, that's helpful.

"And those who are opposed energy liberalisation were clearly in the minority."

A summit statement was issued calling for energy markets to be opened up but, beyond calling for it "as soon as possible", no timetable or deadline was set.

Mr Persson insisted the summit had not been deadlocked

Mr Cook's overall analysis seemed to be shared by the summit host, Swedish prime minister Goran Persson.

"It's not a standstill," he insisted. "It moves in the right direction, not as far as I wanted and not as far as many round the table wanted, but nevertheless in the right direction."

Another outcome of the summit was an appeal issued to the United States to cut its carbon dioxide emissions as part of worldwide efforts to reduce the pollution believed to cause global warming.

And there was also the first admission from EU leaders that they will be affected by the global economic slowdown.

But they concluded that Europe's economies were in a strong enough position to resist threats of recession.

Stockholm was the first of 10 annual economic "health test" summits set up after last year's meeting in Lisbon.