A new slate of names for Europe's top jobs is being considered by European Union leaders in Brussels.
The EU Council meeting, which has been in session since late yesterday evening, has been suspended and will reconvene tomorrow morning.
Agreement is being sought on a successor to Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission President and an EU Council President to succeed Donald Tusk in November.
The roles of High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, President of the European Parliament and President of the European Central Bank will also have to be filled.
A senior EU official has said the major sticking point is the position of President of the European Commission.
The spokesman said that relations were polarised along party political lines "which had certainly complicated a compromise".
It was decided to adjourn the EU Council Summit, which had been sitting since last night, until 11am tomorrow.
The official said the majority of leaders had been reluctant to put proposals for filling the jobs to a vote today.
Mr Tusk will continue consulting with government leaders between today and when the summit resumes tomorrow morning.
He said there was a "clear objective" to make a breakthrough tomorrow.
The official said Mr Tusk had sought consensus on filling the jobs before the summit, but that a different package of proposals was tabled after Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands met at the G20 summit in Osaka.
The officials said Mr Tusk learned of the four states' proposal "relatively late" during the G20.
RTÉ News understands, from officials from two separate countries, that the new proposals include the name of Dutch Commissioner Frans Timmermans for the role of President of European Commission and current World Bank Chief Executive Kristalina Georgieva from Bulgaria for the role of President of the EU Council.
Competition Commissioner Margarete Vestager or Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel are also being considered for the role of High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs.
German MEP Manfred Weber, who was the European People's Party nominee for Commission President, is now understood to be discussed as a possible European Parliament President, potentially sharing a term with Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt.
The two officials stressed the names were very much in the realm of being discussion points and not formal proposals.
Mr Timmermans was the nominee of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament for the role going into May's European elections.
Strong objections were raised to Mr Timmermans's candidacy by centre right prime ministers belonging to the European People's Party and by Hungary, Poland, Czechia and Slovakia.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she still hoped EU leaders can reach a compromise.
Speaking following the suspension of the session, she said she "hoped that with good will a compromise will be feasible".
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Meanwhile, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he thought a deal on the top EU jobs had been close, but he was now not certain that there would be an agreement tomorrow.
The talks are "unbelievably complicated", he said.
The impasse underlines broader decision-making problems facing the EU, which has struggled to respond to a series of crises in recent years, from migration to climate change and the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
The summit is a third attempt to fill five top posts running the European Union for the next five years, forging policy for the world's biggest free trade area and more than 500 million people.
The plan to award Mr Timmermans, a 58-year-old former foreign minister who speaks six languages, the Commission presidency was brokered by the leaders of France, Germany, Spain and Holland in Osaka after there was no majority support for the candidate of the EPP.
The EPP is the largest group in the EU parliament though it does not have a majority.
As a trade-off, the EPP could be handed the less influential job of European Parliament president. But the plan has met with fierce resistance.
"The vast majority of EPP prime ministers don't believe that we should give up the presidency quite so easily, without a fight," Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told reporters last night.
To be appointed, the next Commission president needs the support of at least 72% of the 28 member states, who must represent at least 65% of the EU population.
Additional reporting AFP
