By Nyta Mann BBC News Online political correspondent

As he jets away from the never-ending furore over Cheriegate on Thursday, Tony Blair can be forgiven if he feels relief at escaping to what must look like the relative calm of the Copenhagen summit.

In reality, he will be flying into a gathering involving no less wrangling and rowing - only this time with his fellow European Union leaders, and all for extremely high stakes.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has already said he expects the summit - due to end on Friday - to stretch long into the weekend, with last-ditch haggling stalling a neat closure.

The government has also admitted that at least one of the deals the UK had hoped would be pulled off at the summit, specifically the speeding up of talks to get Turkey into the EU, now looks unlikely.

So far, so Euro-summit.

But Copenhagen is also shaping up to see Mr Blair particularly caught between making headway on the expansion issue in which he has invested much, and his need to protect his domestic flank on the issue of Europe.

UK rebate jealously eyed

While some of his European partners have misgivings about pace and the consequences of "dilution", Mr Blair strongly backs enlargement. In the absence of UK membership of the single currency, it also gives him a key euro-theme to champion.

The summit, however, is already set up for a clash between his support for enlargement and his need to keep hold of the UK's EU rebate, famously negotiated by Margaret Thatcher in 1984 when she declared: "I want my money back."

Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac rowed at the last Euro-summit

The merest suspicion that the �2bn refund could be under threat or traded away is always hazardous domestically for Mr Blair, with Euro-sceptic newspapers - and the Conservatives - having leapt on the suggestion in the past.

He has been warned that Poland, the biggest of the new entrants, is set to lead demands for Britain's rebate to instead be used to pave the way for the historic expansion.

If Poland follows through on its pre-summit tough talk and refuses to join unless it gets the extra cash, Mr Blair could find himself stuck between the rock of surrendering the rebate and the hard place of the UK obstructing enlargement.

'Le row' revived?

The issue could well breathe new life into "Le row", the sudden Anglo-French spat involving the idea of scrapping the rebate which blew up at last October's Euro-summit.

That bit of mid-Channel turbulence has only just quietened down - but not before Downing Street spent an anxious week or two fingers-crossed in the hope the issue would fail to catch fire in the British tabloids.

Finally, of course, no matter how Number Ten has tried to shake it off, there appears to be no escaping Cheriegate.

Mr Blair travels to Copenhagen followed by the usual contingent of British journalists. He is there for talks on international affairs of state but that won't stop the traditional end-of-summit news conference from being dominated by his little local difficulty back home.

Any relief he feels at leaving the affair behind him on the runway is set to be a purely temporary respite.