French President Jacques Chirac on Saturday blamed Britain for the breakdown of European Union (EU) budget talks, saying that Europe is in "grave crisis."

Chirac accused UK of seeking its entire rebate, which led to a bad result for Europe.

EU leaders failed to reach a deal on the 25-nation bloc's spending plan for 2007-2013 at a summit.

The face-losing failure came after five countries, including Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden, rejected a final compromise proposal put forward by the EU presidency Luxembourg.

This is the fist time the EU leaders have a get-together after France and the Netherlands said "no" to the first-ever constitutional treaty more than two weeks ago.

EU leaders fail on budget deal

European Union (EU) leaders on Friday failed to reach a deal on the 25-nation bloc's spending plan for 2007-2013 at a summit om Brussels.

Luxembourg Prime Minster Juncker, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told a press conference that the EU leaders could not make a compromise on the budget after several rounds of negotiations.

The face-losing failure came after five countries, including Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden, rejected a final compromise proposal put forward by the EU presidency Luxembourg.

EU leaders fail to break the impasse after Britain refused to have its EU rebate frozen. London insists any change on its rebate should be liked to reform of EU farm subsidies, a view rejected outright by France.

On the first day of the EU summit, the leaders put the EU constitutional treaty on hold by extending the ratification deadline, keeping the charter dream alive.

This is the fist time the EU leaders have a get-together after France and the Netherlands said "no" to the first-ever constitutional treaty more than two weeks ago.

Source: Xinhua