French President Jacques Chirac is to hold separate meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Angela Merkel from around 1700 GMT on Thursday in Brussels just before the opening of a European summit, French presidency said on Wednesday.

The European leaders are to hold a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to try to strike a deal on the EU budget for 2007-2013.

The European Union failed in June to reach an accord on the 2007-2013 budget, when Britain refused to abandon its rebate, and France rejected reform plans on the bloc's farm subsidy system from which France is the biggest beneficiary.

Chirac's office said that the French president is not against an interim review so long as the talks start in 2009 at the earliest, that any decisions do not take effect before 2014, and that it lays flat all spending, not just the Common Agricultural Policy.

Source: Xinhua