BEIJING, June 17 -- Britain insists on keeping a 5 million pounds rebate designed to compensate its low level of farm subsidies.

    Summit organiser Luxembourg put forward a last-minute compromise proposal that would freeze the spending plan at 1 percent of the bloc's gross national income, cut farm subsidies and let Britain keep a slightly reduced rebate for at least eight years.

    But the Netherlands, which objects to being the largest per capita contributor to the EU budget, and Britain both rejected the proposal. British Foreign Secretary John Straw has pledged to use the veto in seeking a budget rebate.

    "The rebate is fully justified and if necessary we will use the veto. What we've also said is that the rebate is a symptom, but only a symptom, of a wider budgetary problem about the inequalities in the balance of spending", Straw said.

    With a heated budget fight and the union's constitutional mess set to dominate, Straw acknowledged it was likely to be a tough summit and said leaders also have to tackle the confusion created when French and Dutch voters rejected the proposed EU constitution.

    He said "What we know from the decisions of the publics in the Netherlands and France is that the publics have a different view of the European Union from their leaders thought the European Union was, and we have to take account of that, we have to do that in terms of the future trajectory of the European Union."

    (Source: CRIENGLISH.com)