June 19, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 18, 1424

LUXEMBOURG, June 18: France on Wednesday rejected a new compromise offer designed to reform lavish subsidies paid to farmers by the European Union at high-pressure talks among EU agriculture ministers.

“This compromise is still not acceptable for France,” French Agriculture Minister Herve Gaymard told reporters at the talks in Luxembourg, on the eve of the start of an EU summit in Greece.

The European Commission, with the backing of several EU member states, is trying to reform the costly Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) by severing the link between farmers’ production levels and the subsidies they receive.—AFP