President Blair

One of Gordon Brown's worse nightmares may be coming true.

The Independent on Sunday reports that

Tony Blair has emerged as the leading candidate to become the first permanent president of the European Union

after Gordon has given

his grudging blessing to the plan

Blair wants to build bridges between Europe and the new Obama administration

According to an unnamed official,Gordon Brown

will have to swallow hard to sit down in meetings once again with Blair. But he accepts that there needs to be someone from the UK in the new global architecture. There is no opposition to the plan. Things have moved on, people have moved on."