French President Jacques Chirac urged Britain on Thursday to show "a gesture of solidarity" by making concessions on its substantive EU budget rebate ahead of next week's EU summit.

Chirac made the appeal in Luxembourg after a meeting with that country's prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday ruled out any possibility of giving up its cherished 4.6 billion-euro annual rebate.

The gathering of EU heads of state and government is to take place in Brussels June 16-17, just before Britain takes over the six-month EU presidency on July 1.

Hammering out EU's 2007-13 budget has been pushed to the second place as one of the top issues to be discussed at the Brussels summit, making room for leaders of the 25-nation bloc to prescribe for the constitution crisis after France and the Netherlands said "no" to the treaty in their referenda in the past two weeks.

"The time has come for our British friends to understand that they must now make a gesture of solidarity" at the summit, Chirac told journalists.

The French president also said he wanted to see the ratification process of the EU constitution continue, despite his country's rejection of it.

Source: Xinhua