While the European Union chiefs were keen to heal rifts following a "disastrous" June summit, the harmonious atmosphere was threatened by a renewed threat from French President Jacques Chirac over the vexed issue of farm aid.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair hoped that an informal summit - held amid the Tudor splendour of London's Hampton Court Palace - could put the turmoil-wracked European Union back on track after its political double blow earlier this year.
But he was equally determined that haggling over the bloc's 2007-13 budget plans - which collapsed into acrimony in June, following French and Dutch rejections of the EU constitution - will be kept firmly off the table.
Europe's top priority must be to push through urgently-needed economic reforms, to kick-start the continent's long-sputtering economy and avoid being taken over by rising Asian giants China and India, Blair has said.
A spokesman for Blair hailed the fact that "globalisation as an issue and questions related to globalisation are now firmly on the agenda in a way that they were not in June".
But he warned: "Consensus on the questions doesn't guarantee a consensus on the answers."
The EU budget row, while not formally on the agenda, was a hot topic on the sidelines, not least amongst the EU's relatively poor newcomer states who are demanding a deal to unblock much-needed EU funds.
Blair has vowed to do his utmost to strike a budget deal before handing over the EU's presidency in December, despite few signs of movement on the key stumbling blocks: London's refusal to surrender its budget rebate, and France's refusal to budge over reform of the EU's generous farm aids system.
But the tension surrounding the issue re-surfaced Thursday when French President Jacques Chirac reiterated his hard-line stance on farm subsidies - and threatened to veto any World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal in Hong Kong in December which calls them into question.
Chirac told his colleagues at Hampton Court that although France would stick to the EU position, it "will not accept any calling into question" of the EU's Common Agriculture Policy, according to an official.
One potential concrete outcome of the summit was agreement on the creation of a "globalisation fund" of 500,000 euros (607,000 US dollars) a year to help retrain workers throughout the EU in the face of new economic realities.
But the plans drew a cool response from some quarters, with Germany's outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder voicing "more than skepticism," according to his speaking points for the summit.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso stressed that EU leaders - faced with 19 million of their citizens unemployed and shrinking, aging populations - needed to understand the urgency of reform.
"I think that if we agree on having a forward-looking attitude, modernising our social systems, we can probably make the European dream come true," he told BBC radio.
On the eve of the summit, Chirac backed Blair's efforts to keep the spotlight on economic growth - but defended his long-cherished "European social model" of generous welfare support.
"France will... never let Europe become a mere free-trade area," he said.