German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Friday called for French to say "yes" at the May 29 referendum on the European Union (EU) constitution.

As last efforts two day ahead the referendum on Sunday, Schroeder and Zapatero headed for France to insist on the imperative that France approve the EU constitutional treaty, which need the approval by all 25 EU member states and aims at simplifying decision-making in the European Union following last year's expansion of the bloc to the post-communist east and the Mediterranean.

The two heads of government addressed respectively for the "yes " campaign in link-up, with Schroeder in front of a rally of 800 people in the French southwestern city of Toulouse alongside former French minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Zapatero in front of a rally of about 3,000 people in the northern city of Lille hosted by French Socialist party leader Francois Hollande.

"I ask you for a yes to the European constitution, a yes in the name of the left," said the Spanish prime minister.

"Spain votes 'yes', France votes 'yes' and Europe votes 'yes'," said Zapatero, adding "Europe needs France, its enthusiasm, its culture, its strength and its momentum."

"The 'no' is sad and pessimistic," he added. "We want Europe because it means peace, freedom and solidarity."

In Toulouse, the German chancellor urged the French to vote " yes" "with all their heart and their head" and "clearly say yes to the constitution for which "we are fighting".

France and Germany share a great responsibility for Europe to last eternally and must assume that responsibility for future generations, said Schroeder, to whom both countries are engine of all important issues of Europe.

European Union leaders are increasingly worried that a rejection of the treaty in Sunday's referendum in France will deal a bitter blow to the bloc's first constitution.

Spain was the first EU country to hold a referendum on the EU constitution on February 20, while Germany became Friday, by an overwhelming vote in its upper-house Bundesrat, the ninth EU member state to ratify the constitution after Austria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

Source: Xinhua