Britain sought to deflect mounting pressure to accept curbs on its European Union rebate by insisting that its EU partners must also make concessions on the bloc's long-term budget.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Britain would do its best to broker an agreement next month on the 2007-2013 budget, which it blocked last June by refusing any cut in its annual refund unless it won a pledge of future cuts in farm subsidies that benefit France most.

"We in the British presidency are completely committed to doing everything we can to try to get a deal on the EU budget," Mr Straw said on arrival at an EU foreign ministers' meeting.

"But a negotiation is a negotiation which requires movement by all sides, not just by one party which in this case happens to be the UK presidency."

Several other ministers vented anger at the British presidency's go-slow tactics on the budget and most insisted that a compromise proposed by Luxembourg last June must remain the basis for a deal in mid-December.

Three weeks before a crucial summit on future financing, London has yet to put forward a new compromise package and has said it will do so only on the eve of a special ministerial meeting on December 7, leaving just 10 days for negotiations.

"We are sitting here wasting our time," Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht complained, according to diplomats, calling the discussion pointless.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso attended the foreign ministers' session to underscore the need for quick action on the budget.

"I have come here to tell the presidency and all member states that a deal is really urgent, and very frankly it's not credible to speak about new enlargements if you are not able to finance the European Union as it is now," he told reporters.

"This is a very serious matter, we are running out of time."

Any chance of agreement at the December 15-16 summit hinges on Prime Minister Tony Blair's willingness to give up part of the rebate, worth €5.1 billion last year, but some diplomats question whether he has enough domestic support.

British Europe Minister Douglas Alexander lectured other ministers on the "enduring British realities" about the rebate, noting that any change in EU funding arrangements would have to be acceptable to Parliament, where there was a broad consensus that the Luxembourg proposal was unacceptable.

France has shown no willingness to accept further reform of farm payments, sticking to a 2002 agreement which pegged agricultural spending at current levels of about 40 per cent of the EU budget until 2013.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and his Italian counterpart insisted in yesterday's meeting that a deal could not be achieved by taking money away from those countries that had accepted the Luxembourg package and giving it to those who had rejected it - Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Spain.