BERLIN, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Germany's high court decided on Tuesday to delay ruling on the European Union's constitution until as late as 2009, dealing a blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel's efforts to revive the treaty ratification process.

    The Federal Constitutional Court, based in the western German city of Karlsruhe, said that it would not rule on whether the EU constitution conforms with Germany's Basic Law until after there was a final decision on the treaty.

    Peter Gauweiler, a parliament member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), filed the lawsuit to the high court, claiming that the EU constitution would deprive the German parliament of its power.

    Judges of the high court were quoted by German news agency DPA as saying that their decision might be delayed until 2009 because they did not want to influence the political process.

    The EU constitution needs to be ratified by all the 25 EU members before it takes effect. The document was rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands last summer.

    Merkel planned to put resuscitating the constitution a top priority when Germany assumed the EU's presidency starting January 2007.