<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=629 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3>Cold response for EU budget plan

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Budget talks will climax at a Brussels summit later this month


<!-- S ILIN -->Jack Straw's speech
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IBOX --><!-- S SF -->The UK's European Union partners have been criticising its proposal to end deadlock on the bloc's 2007-13 budget.
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said he thought the deal had "little chance" of being accepted.
Spanish economy minister Pedro Solbes said it was a "wonderful document for the UK" but not for other countries.
The UK on Monday offered to increase its payments to the EU budget, but proposed big cuts to the budget, with new member states the biggest losers. <!-- E SF -->
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Monday dismissed the proposals as a budget for a "mini-Europe and not the Europe that we need".
Poland, Hungary and France also rejected the deal, but the Netherlands and the Czech Republic gave it a cautious welcome.
The UK is offering to pay an extra 1bn euros (£680m) per year into the EU budget in the hope of getting a deal during its presidency, before the end of the year.
Reform debate
The UK proposal would cut development aid to the 10 new member states by about 10% while making it easier for them to get the money.
<!-- S IBOX --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=208 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5></TD><TD class=sibtbg>KEY POINTS OF UK PROPOSAL
The UK pays 8bn euros more over seven years
Total budget of 847bn euros over the period
Spending goes below 1% of EU gross national income by 2013
Cut in development aid to new member states
Cuts in rural development payments to older members
Cut in funding for EU bureaucracy
Major review of all spending, including CAP, in 2008



<!-- S ILIN -->Analysis: 'Un-European' deal
<!-- E ILIN --><!-- S ILIN -->In quotes: Europe's reaction
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France said the plan "does not abide by the principle of solidarity" and did "not seem likely to bring the agreement we all want".
It also urged the British presidency to "accept a substantial and lasting reform of the British rebate" in the common interest of the European Union.
The UK negotiated a rebate that lessens its overall contribution under former leader Margaret Thatcher in 1984.
UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Monday there could be no fundamental change in the rebate without fundamental reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which subsidises farmers.
Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz rejected the UK proposal, saying "is not based on solidarity. In this form it is unacceptable".
Lithuania said it would not agree to the plan. "The poorest countries are the ones that will have to pay," a government official told the Reuters news agency.
'Realistic'
Mr Straw said the proposal still envisaged an "enormous amount" of money for development aid in the new member states, equivalent to double the Marshall Fund spent on the reconstruction of Europe after World War II.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker - who proposed June's failed compromise deal - said the proposals could be the basis of a deal
The Netherlands called it a small step forward, while the Czech Republic has given it a guarded welcome, saying it was realistic and worth discussing.
BBC Europe Editor Mark Mardell says the Germans and Dutch would be better off under the deal, Swedes, French, Spanish and Italians would stay much the same.
A proposed cut in funds for the EU bureaucracy would hurt Luxembourg and Belgium. <!-- E BO -->


</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4501778.stm