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Those less keen on the “abstract ideal” of European unity won the argument for expanding the EU into a bloc of at least 28 members (Croatia is expected to join in the next few years).

In the view of some leaders, notably Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, this two-track approach no longer works, because it fails to provide clear-cut answers to the burning questions of the day. Where, geographically speaking, does the EU end? And what will the EU look like and do, 20 to 30 years from now?

Mr Sarkozy wants the December summit to set up a “committee of wise men” to address such long-term questions. Other leaders suspect that his motives are less high-minded and that he simply wants to obtain a recommendation from the “wise men” that Turkey should never join the EU. That would clash with the EU’s position that Turkey is a candidate for membership.

Diplomats say Mr Sarkozy will get his committee but other countries will seek to neutralise it. “They’ll say, ‘Here’s your Jeep, put your wise men in it, drive to the swamp and have a nice day’,” one envoy predicts.

“I don’t know if there’s anything much [borrowers] can do,” said Keith Gumbinger of HSH Associates, a publisher of mortgage related information. “Hopefully, they’ve been prudent about preparing for it, building a nest egg or refinancing the loan.”

But most borrowers are likely to just scramble to pay the higher expenses – some of which will jump by 50 percent and come as a big surprise.

According to a survey conducted last month for the AFL-CIO by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, three quarters of borrowers have little clue about how much their payments will increase when their loans adjust. Nearly half don’t know how their loans actually reset.

“This survey shows that many homeowners simply are not prepared for the steep rise in mortgage payments that this market inflicts on ARM holders,” John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, said in a press release.

The German-based Energy Watch Group will release its study in London today saying that global oil production peaked in 2006 – much earlier than most experts had expected. The report, which predicts that production will now fall by 7% a year, comes after oil prices set new records almost every day last week, on Friday hitting more than $90 (£44) a barrel.

“The world soon will not be able to produce all the oil it needs as demand is rising while supply is falling. This is a huge problem for the world economy,” said Hans-Josef Fell, EWG’s founder and the German MP behind the country’s successful support system for renewable energy.

The damage done to New Orleans in 2005 has spurred two rival teams of climate experts, in America and Israel, to redouble their efforts to enable people to play God with the weather.

Under one scheme, aircraft would drop soot into the near-freezing cloud at the top of a hurricane, causing it to warm up and so reduce wind speeds. Computer simulations of the forces at work in the most violent storms have shown that even small changes can affect their paths – enabling them to be diverted from major cities.

But the hurricane modifiers are fighting more than the weather. Lawyers warn that diverting a hurricane from one city to save life and property could result in multi-billion dollar lawsuits from towns that bear the brunt instead. Hurricane Katrina caused about $41 billion in damage to New Orleans.

Hurricanes form when air warmed over the ocean rises to meet the cool upper atmosphere. The heat turns to kinetic energy, producing a spiral of wind and rain. The greater the temperature differences between top and bottom, and the narrower the eye of the hurricane, the faster it blows.

Moshe Alamaro, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told The Sunday Telegraph of his plans to “paint” the tops of hurricanes black by scattering carbon particles – either soot or black particles from the manufacture of tyres – from aircraft flying above the storms. The particles would absorb heat from the sun, leading to changes in the airflows within the storm. Satellites could also heat the cloud tops by beaming microwaves from space.
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“If they’re done in the right place at the right time they can affect the strength of the hurricane,” Mr Alamaro said.

Agents also hide fake sheet explosives in briefcase linings. They stash watch timers inside hollowed-out books. They cram detonators in back braces and smear plastic explosives on shoelaces.

The Transportation Security Administration’s special operations division devised the testing to raise the stakes for airport screeners and test whether they can spot bomb parts hidden as a terrorist might try to get them on an airplane, according to a classified TSA report obtained by USA TODAY.

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The letter to RBS made particular reference to investors holding mortgage-backed securities – which have been at the centre of the sub-prime crisis.

The request from the two banks is a stark reminder that the global liquidity freeze is far from over.

It is similar to those offered to Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank at the height of the credit crunch.

It is understood that neither Barclays nor RBS has had cause to use the Fed funding line yet. The credit line has been set up as a contingency, and may not need to be used at all, banking sources stressed last night.

Barclays has been given permission to borrow up to $20bn through the facility, while RBS can borrow up to $10bn. The banks would have to put up assets as collateral with the Fed to gain access to the cash. A spokesman for Barclays Capital said: “This secures another potential source of funding should our US clients seek it.”

A spokeswoman for RBS declined to comment.

The Fed governors wrote to Barclays on October 11 to reveal that it had agreed to a request from the British bank for access to the lifeline funds.

RBS received a letter the following day. Both letters were published on the Fed’s website last week.

It is unclear whether or not the two UK banks approached the Fed together, or if the timing was coincidental. RBS and Barclays are known to have been more critical than other major UK banks of the Bank of England’s reluctance to pump liquidity into the money markets at the height of the credit crisis.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph last month, Bob Diamond, the chief executive of Barclays Capital, made a thinly veiled plea for intervention.

He said it was “down to central banks” to provide liquidity. At the time the Bank was the only major central bank yet to introduce emergency measures. It subsequently did in the wake of the crisis at Northern Rock.

The move comes after a handful of Wall Street banks established a $75bn bail-out fund to buy assets from cash-strapped structured investment vehicles.

Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase unveiled the superfund – to be known as MLEC – last Monday.

It is understood that the founding banks are now trying to bring other Wall Street big hitters into the fund.

Some executives at Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers are believed to be pushing to join the scheme, but others have appeared more reticent.

The fund has been set up because some structured investment vehicles (SIVs) are still struggling to refinance short-term commercial paper loans because investors still have concerns about exposures to US sub-prime lending.