Germany and France vowed on Thursday to keep the European Union constitution ratification process going on.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and his German counterpart Joschka Fischer discussed in Berlin the crisis over the EU's constitution.

"Europe cannot afford a time-out from world politics," Fischer told reporters. Germany and France will make joint efforts to keep the process alive, he added.

Douste-Blazy became foreign minister last week in a major cabinet reshuffle after France rejected the EU constitution in a referendum.

The French minister said that France and Germany want to continue to be "the engine of European integration, but only in cooperation with other partners," he said.

On Friday, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is to travel to Paris to consult with French President Jacques Chirac on the crisis.

Both leaders have insisted that other countries should press forward with ratifying the historical EU charter.

Source: Xinhua