BRUSSELS, Nov 7: EU foreign ministers re-launched stalled budget talks on Monday, with Britain standing firmly by its long-cherished EU rebate despite growing pressure to strike a deal by next month.

London is widely seen as holding the key to a deal firstly because it holds the EU’s rotating presidency and secondly its multi-billion-euro budget rebate has been a major sticking point blocking an agreement so far.

Adding to sparks over the budget, the ministers also tackled the sensitive subject of crunch WTO negotiations, which is fuelling a row between France and the European Commission.

Underlining British caution about hopes an accord on EU spending plans for 2007-2013 can be reached at a mid-December summit, Prime Minister Tony Blair reiterated his defence of London’s rebate even as the ministers met in Brussels.

“There hasn’t been any question of giving up the rebate,” he said in London. “The question is getting a financial deal that’s fair for everybody, and we’ll do our best to do it.

“It’s going to be difficult, but we will give it our best shot,” he said.

The meeting on Monday marks the first time ministers have sat down to discuss the budget since a fractious summit in June, which collapsed into a bitter exchange of accusations over the failure to agree on who pays what into the EU pot.

The failure of the summit was widely put down to a refusal by Britain to see its cherished rebate reduced without cuts in the EU’s lavish farm subsidies, which France — the main beneficiary of such spending — flatly rejected.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw conceded that other member states were getting anxious to see detailed proposals from London to unblock the current deadlock ahead of the Dec 15-16 summit.

“I know there is an appetite for more specific proposals than have been made so far by the presidency. They will be made in due course,” he told journalists.—AFP