The European Union finished ironing out remaining problems with the 10 candidate countries yesterday, paving the way for ratification of their accession treaty, diplomats said.

The 15-nation EU and the mostly ex-communist candidates concluded marathon enlargement talks at a historic summit in Copenhagen last December, but some applicants had a few outstanding questions on the package agreed.

"We have ironed out a number of issues in order to meet the requests of the acceding countries. We believe we now have a final draft text of the accession treaty," one diplomat told Reuters after a regular meeting of the 15 EU ambassadors.

The text has now to be translated into all the languages of the EU and of the acceding countries. The 10 acceding states are Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The remaining problems were mostly of a technical nature, concerning issues such as milk quotas, intellectual property and rates of value-added tax.

Poland, by far the largest of the acceding countries, secured a declaration stating that the EU would not try to influence Warsaw's strict anti-abortion laws once it joins.

Poland's ex-communist government needs the support of the influential Catholic Church to win its referendum on EU membership, expected in June. Some eurosceptic parties have long argued that the EU will undermine traditional Catholic values.

Brussels has never sought to impose its views on moral issues and EU member Ireland also has strict abortion laws.

Another staunchly Catholic candidate, Malta, negotiated a similar declaration stating that national law would take precedence over EU law in the area of abortion.

Most of the acceding countries plan to hold membership referendums during 2003, beginning with Malta and Slovenia in March. The 10 will sign the accession treaty at a ceremony in Athens in April and become full members on May 1, 2004.

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