French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder agreed on Saturday that the ratification process of the EU constitution should go on after voters in France and the Netherlands voted against the treaty, a German government spokesman said.

The ratification "has to go on," spokesman Bela Anda said after the two leaders met over dinner to plot a way out of the crisis caused by the double rejection of the EU constitution.

Every EU member country has "the right and the duty" to takes its own decision on the constitution, he said.

Schroeder is seeking to salvage the EU constitution from the wreckage after the double body-blow, shuttling across the continent in a bid to save a treaty aimed at preventing decision-making gridlock in a bloc recently expanded to 25 members.

Germany has ratified the constitution, although no referendum was used, and so have nine others of the 25 member states, but the damage caused by the "no" votes in France and the Netherlands is severe.

It emerged on Friday that Schroeder intends to call for a "pause for reflection" when EU leaders gather at a summit in Brussels on June 16-17 to plan the way forward.

Political observers said Saturday's meeting between Chirac and Schroeder was designed to show that France and Germany remain the powerhouse of the EU, as Britain, regarded as a repository of free market values, prepares to take over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU on July 1.

The Times of London, deeply Eurosceptic, jeered that the meeting was between a lame duck (Chirac) and a dead duck (Schroeder). Chirac's position has been hugely damaged by the French rejection of the constitution and his poll ratings have collapsed.

Schroeder has been hit by a series of disastrous local election results and wants a general election brought forward to September.

Mariano Rajoy, leader of the opposition Spanish conservative party has described the Chirac-Schroeder tandem as an "axis of losers".

At the European summit Schroeder will argue for a "period of reflection" to allow for a necessary debate on the direction Europe should take and what changes in emphasis are needed.

A summit of 25 is not the best place to decide on the future, according to Berlin, since an "intimate and little-publicised atmosphere where the parties are not subject to pressure" is required.

Schroeder is also due to see Chirac in Paris next Friday and will meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Berlin three days later.