Left-wing members of the European Parliament celebrated today after forcing José Manuel Durão Barroso, incoming President of the European Commission, into a humiliating climbdown over the line-up of his team.

Senhor Barroso has been arguing with MEPs over the nomination to the sensitive post of justice commissioner of Rocco Buttiglione, a Catholic Italian conservative who believes that homosexuality is a sin and says women should stay at home and raise children.

But two days of backroom wrangling - which included phone calls from Downing Street to Labour MEPs opposing Signor Buttiglione's nomination - failed to end the impasse and Senhor Barroso was facing defeat in a vote that would have plunged the European Union into its worst political crisis.

This morning, just one hour before that vote, Senhor Barroso addressed the 732-member assembly and told them that if a vote were to go ahead the outcome would "not be positive" for the European Union and its key institutions.

To loud cheers and clapping from MEPs, he added: "In these circumstances I have decided not to submit a new Commission for your approval today.

"I need more time to look at this issue and to consult with the Council (of European leaders) and consult further with you, so we can have strong support for the new Commission. It is better to have more time to get it right."

Then, displaying some of the diplomatic skills for which he was chosen to Europe's top post, he added: "Ladies and gentlemen, these last days have demosntrated that the European Union is an intensely political construction and that this Parliament, elected by popular vote across all our member states, has indeed a vital role to play in the governance of Europe."

The decision means that the current European Commision led by Romano Prodi and including Neil Kinnock and Chris Patten will stay in position for at least several weeks. The 24 new commissioners, including the former Labour minister Peter Mandelson, were due to have started work next week.

Mr Mandelson said the decision would probably cost him a month's salary, but it was "worth the sacrifice to get the Commission team right".

He added: "It would have been great to have voted the new Commission into being. But if pushed to vote today, this would have been a very polarised outcome.

"I think it is important to get the broadest base of support for the Commission - the Commission will be much stronger as a result, with a more stable relationship with the Parliament - by taking a bit more time to sort things out."

European leaders are meeting in Rome on Friday to sign the new European Constitution, a grand ceremony that will now be overshadowed by the Buttiglione row. EU officials suggested that the leaders might fly into Rome tomorrow night for urgent talks on what to do next.

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, is already under pressure from fellow European leaders to either replace his candidate or accept that he takes on another job - a move that Signor Buttiglione says he will not accept.

This afternoon, Franco Frattini, the Italian Foreign Minister, said that Signor Buttiglione remained Italy's candidate. He said: "The Prime Minister will have a discussion with Barroso but it is clear ... at present, Italy's candidate is the designated candidate, Professor Buttiglione."

Signor Buttiglione, a former philosophy professor who is close to the Pope and is believed to have written some of his papal encyclicals, sat stony-faced through Senhor Barroso's speech this morning as MEPs cheered their victory.

In his nomination hearing two weeks ago, the Italian told MEPs that as a Catholic he considered homosexuality to be a sin. He also believed marriage existed to allow women to have children and the protection of a male. The next week he was reported to have said that single mothers were not very good people.

Those politically incorrect views outraged leftwingers in the Parliament, and gave Martin Schulz - the German leader of the 200-strong socialist bloc - an opportunity for revenge against Signor Berlsuconi, who had likened the German to a Nazi concentration camp guard during a rowdy session of the Parliament last year. Herr Schulz has denied that revenge was a motive.

The crisis was made worse by the fact that MEPs cannot reject individual commissioners but can veto only the entire line-up, which they have never done before.

Once the MEPs' cheers die down, Signor Buttiglione's rejection as a commissioner will leave Europe with a long-term problem and set a dangerous precedent for the nomination of future commissioners.

It will also anger many Catholics who will see it as proof that Europe's foremost Christian church is in open conflict with the values of the continent's main political institution.

Although Signor Berlusconi is expected to accept that he must find a new candidate, he could also demand that at least one or two of the leftwing commissioners-designate be replaced at the same time. Slovenia and Lithuania, which have both had elections since their candidates were chosen, are expected to use the occasion to change their nominees too.

Anthony Browne, The Times Europe Correspondent, said from Strasbourg: "This opens up a whole new can of worms. There will have to be a lot of negotiations - I should think it will take about a month."

But Browne said the row would not affect the signing of the EU Constitution itself. "It's politically embarrassing to sign the Constitution while there's this crisis, but it doesn't actually matter."

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