Foreign ministers of the EuropeanUnion (EU)'s 25 member countries gathered Sunday evening in Luxembourg for a closed-door conclave before their formal meeting on Monday and Tuesday, trying to strike a deal on the crisis-hit bloc's budget plans.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was under strong pressure from his EU counterparts to make concessions over his country's cherished 4.6 billion-euro annual rebate, a key point blocking accord on the 2007-2013 budget plans.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who currently holds the rotating EU presidency, has held a series of meetings with EU leaders in recent days, but the hope of reaching a consensus on the issue before next week's EU summit remains slim.

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

Hammering out an agreement on the budget has been pushed to thesecond place as one of the top issues to be discussed at the Brussels summit, making room for EU leaders to prescribe for the constitution crisis after France and the Netherlands said 'no' to the treaty in their referendums in the past two weeks.

Diplomats warn that, while not formally linked, the constitution crisis has inevitably complicated the political equations surrounding the budget talks.

The EU's Luxembourg presidency has warned that a budget accord is all the more important now, to show that Europe is not completely paralyzed by turmoil.

However, British Prime Minister Tony Blair responded French President Jacques Chirac's call for Britain's concessions by saying that the rebate could only be negotiable via a full EU spending review.

"The reason for the unfairness is because the spending of Europe is so geared to the common agricultural policy," Blair was quoted by British media as saying.

The annual 4.6 billion euro rebate was famously secured in 1984by then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, after she declared, according to legend, "I want my money back."

Editor: Yan