Mr Farage added: The reality is that Britain is isolated alienated and completely alone

Mr Farage added: "The reality is that Britain is isolated, alienated and completely alone in Europe." Mr Helmer also attacked the loss of some of the British rebate, won 21 years ago by Mrs Thatcher. Mr Farage wanted to know why one euro from the budget should go to "new sewers in Budapest" when public services in London were crumbling. Mr Farage said that during Britain's presidency the EU had produced more than 3,300 new legislative acts. It had opened EU memberships with Turkey despite a majority of EU citizens being against it and he had given away the British rebate. "The result is a building, but not one that really quite meets the needs of the modern world. That is perfectly understandable because of the way it has developed over time. So we got an immediate deal but we need a longer-term framework to meet future needs." Mr Blair came under fire from MEPs complaining that the budget deal was not enough - and he saw red after attacks from UK Independence Party MEP Nigel Farage and Tory Roger Helmer.

"This is a good moment to take Europe forward." Mr Blair said there was a point during the summit budget marathon when he decided what the European budget problem was that "the budget was like a house that had many different rooms in it, all constructed at different eras by different designers. "That then allows us to adopt the agenda that is waiting there on issues of concern - the economy, illegal immigration, which is a huge issue for the future of Europe, terrorism, the environment." Tackling those issues would enable Europe to be projected as of benefit to its citizens: "We have every chance of doing this in Europe now as a result of a budget deal which offers a perspective in which the future-of-Europe debate is taken forward without it being continually dogged by an argument about the budget. Mr Blair said the EU summit last weekend had been an opportunity to settle a budget for the short term and, via the review clause, to begin a process that could lead to radical reform for the long term. "The lesson is, it isn't something we should fear, but something which adds to the strength of the EU." That was why starting EU entry talks with Turkey and Croatia - one of the British presidency achievements - was important, why Macedonia has now been given EU "candidate status" under the presidency, and why some countries in the Balkans saw their long-term future as part of the EU. "One of the best things that has happened to Europe has been the arrival of former central and eastern European states that come in as thriving and vibrant democracies.

That setback had raised questions over Europe's future: "There was a simple task to perform - it was necessary to get the budget cleared. Once that was done, we had to return to those issues that I raised in June (in a speech to the European Parliament) - how do we reconnect Europe properly to the citizens? "I suggest that we do so not by concentrating on our past achievements, which are immense and an extraordinary source of peace and prosperity over many years, but by responding to future challenges." The challenges were globalisation, which required an EU with a complete single market including opening-up of the services sector, a European economy focusing on innovation, new technology and research and development, and continuing to champion EU enlargement. "I think in time this will come to be seen as of critical importance - we really do need a seriously reformed budget for the future." The Prime Minister acknowledged that any changes arising from a review required the unanimous approval of all member states but added: "There is a tremendous willingness across the member states to contemplate a more ambitious budget if it is in the context of a reformed budget." Mr Blair said Britain's six-month EU presidency began in July just after the French and Dutch "no" votes on the constitution. Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, who was in hospital last night making what was said to be a rapid recovery from a stroke, is facing a right-wing challenge for the premiership from his arch-rival and opponent Benjamin Netanyahu.

"In a war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this law for a single moment," the President declared yesterday at a year-end press conference at the White House.. He also challenged the Senate to drop its filibuster on the Patriot Act, containing enlarged powers for the FBI, and whose key provisions are set to expire at the end of the year. President George Bush has hit back at critics of his anti-terrorism measures, saying that targeted domestic surveillance by the ultra-secret National Security Agency was vital to protect the country's security. "They see all these migrants as just clutter, they don't even see them as people," a defiant Shanti Sellz said "It's blatant racism - fear of the other That's almost an American value at this point.". To the handful of humanitarians who still travel almost daily to the borderlands with water, food and medical supplies and shout out under bridges and along dry riverbeds to see if anyone needs help, this prevailing attitude is deeply disheartening.

Having used Saddam Hussein as their bogeyman in the first Bush term, it now appears they are resorting to Mexican migrants instead. The Republicans, in particular, have become adept at stirring up fears of external threats to win electoral support. Who loses on this? It provides the perfect smokescreen for a whole host of other problems they'd rather not talk about." It may be no coincidence that the latest wave of anti-immigrant frenzy coincides with the collapse of American aspirations for easy conquest and democratisation in Iraq, and with the more general collapse in the fortunes of the Bush administration. The fear and hostility, however, seem to be out of all proportion to any threat - economic or other - that the migrants pose.