EU crisis talks shift to Poland

Poland is anxious to get the budget wrangling resolved

Poland is hosting talks with the foreign ministers of France and Germany - countries which are at loggerheads with the UK over the EU budget.

The UK's Minister for Europe, Douglas Alexander, was also in Warsaw to outline the UK's plans for its EU presidency, beginning on 1 July.

Poland wants a budget deal as soon as possible, as it fears losing billions of euros in subsidies.

It needs EU money for infrastructure projects such as road-building.

The BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw says Poland supports the UK's vision of a more economically liberal Europe, but it also wants a Europe with stronger political institutions, as do France and Germany.

It will urge its wealthier western European neighbours not to leave the newer, poorer members in the east behind, he says.

The UK held up agreement on the EU's framework budget for 2007-13 earlier this month, by refusing to relinquish its budget rebate unless the Common Agricultural Policy was reformed.

Mr Alexander told Polish ambassadors in Warsaw that the UK would strive to make the European labour market more flexible, in an effort to reduce unemployment, the Polish news agency PAP reported.

At the same meeting, Polish Foreign Minister Adam Rotfeld said Poland now had "a rare chance to play the role of the driving force of integration at a time when apathy is setting in".