Cameron drops Japan, New Zealand trips to attend EU summit

(LONDON) - British Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday cancelled upcoming visits to New Zealand and Japan in order to attend a crucial meeting on the eurozone debt crisis, Britain's press reported.

The British leader was due to visit the two countries later this week, but will instead attend a hastily-arranged meeting of the European Council as officials desperately seek a solution to the growing debt problem.

The summit was arranged at Sunday's fractious meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels.

"As a European Council has been called for Wednesday, the Prime Minister has had to regretfully cancel his planned trip to Japan and New Zealand," a Cameron official told travelling reporters Sunday.

Cameron's Downing Street office would not confirm the reports as it is protocol not to announce the leader's diary.

Tempers frayed at Sunday's talks over French President Nicolas Sarkozy's insistence that only the 17 members of the eurozone attend Wednesday's bank rescue summit, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Cameron convinced those at the meeting that all 27 EU members should be invited, leaving him unable to fulfill his international visits.