Sarkozy heads to Spain to push slimline EU treaty

(PARIS) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to meet Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in Madrid on Thursday for talks on a new treaty to replace the European Union's rejected constitution.

The new French president has made relaunching the stalled European constitution a priority of his foreign policy. French and Dutch voters rejected the proposed constitution in 2005 referendums.

The trip to Madrid is part of a series of "bilateral consulations that the president of the republic wishes to hold to try to push forward the idea of a simplified treaty," a presidential spokesman said Wednesday.

Sarkozy, who is hoping for a deal on the treaty to be reached at an EU summit in Brussels in late June, has called for a slimline version that omits controversial elements of the original document and would not need to be put to a popular vote.

Such a reform treaty is deemed essential to streamline the workings of the European Union, which has grown from 15 to 27 member states in two waves of expansion since 2004.

Germany holds the EU presidency until the end of June and its Chancellor Angela Merkel is trying to get member states to commit to a "roadmap" that will lead them to ratify a new treaty before European Parliament elections in 2009.

Spain became the first EU country to adopt the constitution by referendum in 2005. It has now been ratified by 18 of the 27 member states.

Spanish government officials have said they could accept a slimmed-down version of the text, but do not want it to be simply a technical document with all political elements stripped from it.

Sarkozy, a conservative, and Zapatero, a socialist, also plan to discuss bilateral relations and the creation of a "Mediterranean union" proposed by Sarkozy that would include European and African states.

Sarkozy, who was also due to meet with Spain's King Juan Carlos and opposition Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy, will be accompanied on his Madrid trip by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie.