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Small nations round on France in budget row

Reuters, Stresa. Italy
Smaller European Union nations and central bankers told France on Friday to respect rules limiting budget deficits, or risk creating trouble for a pact that underpins the euro.
The Netherlands and Austria led the charge against Paris as European finance ministers gathered in Italy, saying they were in no mood for a compromise allowing France to escape fines for breaking the rules of the EU's Stability and Growth Pact.
Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm said the very Maastricht Treaty which set up European monetary union was at stake.
"We gave up the sovereignty on our currency from a very good treaty. If this treaty is not applied, we would be in big trouble," he told reporters on arriving for the meeting in the northern lakeside resort of Stresa.
European central bankers also warned that the row strikes at the heart of monetary union with ECB Executive Board Member Otmar Issing called it a matter of "utmost concern."
France has angered EU colleagues, provoking one of the worst crises in at least five years for the economic and monetary union by repeatedly flouting EU rules to keep deficits below three per cent of gross domestic product - the fiscal underpinning for the euro currency.
Germany is also breaking the pact but is working to get its budget back in line.
European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes took a tough line with Paris. France must honour its commitments and go further than the 0.5 per cent annual cuts to the large hole in its public finances, or structural deficit, he said on Friday.
"What we know is that France will have to do clearly more," Solbes said.
France expects to violate the budget pact until 2006 and is proceeding with tax cuts to stimulate growth. It is proposing cuts in its underlying structural deficit, which strips out economic swings.
Finance ministers were scouring for ways to avoid a showdown with the second biggest country in the monetary union and to save face for the pact. Belgium Finance Minister Didier Reynders said he and his EU peers were looking for a clear commitment that France balance its budget over time and an outline how itwoulddoit.
Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Junker, who is prime minister and finance minister, also held out hope for compromise. He stressed that as a close neighbour of France, he has a close interest in the outcome. "I do not like Dutch drama," he said.
But Zalm held firm. "I'm not in the mood for a discussion about compromising," said the Dutch finance minister, whose country is threatening to go to court to get the pact enforced.