Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek insisted Wednesday that the ratification of the EU constitution should continue but that the whole process should be delayed in light of the French rejection of the text.

Paroubek said he would propose extending the deadline for the document's ratification during a European Union summit on June 16-17 which is due to tackle the consequences of France's "no" vote on Sunday.

The prime minister said it was "difficult to expect that the ratification process would be achieved by the end of 2006".

The constitutional treaty stipulates that it should be ratified on November 1, 2006 but does not exclude an alternative date.

The Czech government had foreseen ratifying the constitution in a referendum to be held along with the next general election in June 2006.

The government has committed to spending up to 200 million korunamillion euros, 8.0 million dollars) on a public information campaign about the treaty ahead of an expected referendum.

One of the three coalition parties, the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), failed in an attempt to halt the information campaign following the French referendum result.

Paroubek said that according to the treaty's protocol, discussions about the constitution were to continue until it was ratified in four-fifths of member states.

"Therefore this is not dramatic," said Paroubek, referring to France's rejection of the document.

The prime minister hinted about the possibility of repeating the French referendum, pointing out that Ireland repeated its referendum on the Nice treaty on EU enlargement.

The main Czech opposition party the Civic Democrats claim the EU treaty is invalid following the French "no" and that there is no point approving it.

Bohuslav Sobotka, deputy prime minister and first deputy chairman of the ruling Social Democrat Party (CSSD), said before the meeting that Prague should go to the EU summit in mid-June "as a country striving for the process of ratification to be completed."