David Miliband publicly ruled himself out of the race to become foreign minister of the European Union yesterday and threw his support behind Tony Blair’s flagging campaign to become its first president.

With one eye apparently on a future tilt at the Labour leadership, the Foreign Secretary committed his future to Britain, saying that he wanted to “stay and fight” the general election. He described Mr Blair as an “excellent candidate” for Europe’s top job.

Mr Blair would have to attend an EU summit in Brussels next Thursday to make his case if nominated.

Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish Prime Minister, in charge of drawing up a shortlist for the three jobs created by the Lisbon treaty — president, foreign minister and the bureaucratic post of secretary-general of the European Council — is struggling. His role is akin to solving a political Rubik’s cube. He has to select names that balance each other in party politics and the EU’s internal politics. Mr Reinfeldt then has to win approval from the EU’s 27 leaders. After failing to find consensus candidates when all 27 leaders were in Berlin on Tuesday, he will use next week’s dinner in Brussels to try to break the deadlock.

Mr Miliband, in his first public comments on his possible candidacy, said: “I am committed to Britain and I am committed to the Labour Government. There will be a general election in this country within a matter of months. It is a massive choice for the country. And so when the choice came to me about whether to stay in Britain or leave Britain, there was only one answer: it is to stay and fight for the kind of Britain I believe in. That’s very, very clear in my mind.”

Mr Miliband has frustrated some Labour supporters by failing on at least two occasions to make a move against Gordon Brown for the party leadership over the past 18 months. His comments committing himself to the domestic fight may yet win him points in a future leadership election.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary and former EU Trade Commissioner, also insisted that he was not interested in the post of High Representative for Foreign Affairs. “I want to remain a member of the British Government, serving the British people,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “I had my spell in Brussels. Now I am home for good. I am not going to leave British politics.”

Mr Blair has so far refused to make any public statement on his desire to become the first president of the European Council, despite being the chosen candidate of the Government. Mr Reinfeldt, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said that he would tell the summit next week of his preferred line-up for the three jobs. He had finished his first round of one-to-one consultations with the EU leaders, he said, and warned that he might have to resort to a qualified-majority vote to find winners.

He pledged to hold a second round of talks to single out the names with the most support and said he expected those named to attend the summit. But he conceded that his attempt to find a suitable team could still face a last-minute defeat.

“My idea, when I nominate these names next Thursday, is that they should be presenting themselves to the council meeting,” Mr Reinfeldt said. “Just to remind you, we have had many events in EU history where the presented candidate does not get the position, so it could be that a lengthy dinner at the European Council delivers someone else.”

Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian Prime Minister, is said to be the leading candidate for the post of president after winning support from the French and Germans and a push by smaller countries for a low-key “chairman, not a chief”, a move being interpreted as anti-Blair. Mr Reinfeldt is believed to have added the secretary-general post into the debate over top jobs to give him more range to try to “balance” the appointments. The favourite is the current deputy Secretary-General, Pierre de Boissieu. who is French.

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