Hungary PM ready to modify disputed laws: Barroso

(STRASBOURG) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has told EU authorities he will modify controversial laws which are the subject of legal action against Budapest launched by the European Commission, the executive chief said Wednesday.

"Today I received a letter by PM Orban. He has indicated to me his intention to modify the relevant legislation," EU executive chief Jose Manuel Barroso told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, where Orban was also taking to the floor to defend his government.

Barroso said he and Orban would be working over the coming days to find legal solutions, vowing to handle "with the highest priority" an issue that spawned accusations Orban was building a "totalitarian" regime.

The Commission chief said wider principles of democracy and freedom in general now needed to be adressed, referring to "concerns expressed regarding the quality of democracy in Hungary".

The EU executive said earlier it has written to Hungary to express new concerns about press freedom and pluralism, after Brussels obtained changes to a rewrite of the country's media law last year.

The European Commission launched legal proceedings Tuesday against three other Hungarian reforms affecting the central bank, the retirement age of judges and data protection.