(PRAGUE) - EU countries should set a less ambitious deadline for a wide-ranging reform treaty to be ratified by its 27 member states, Czech European Affairs minister, Alexandr Vondra, told local lawmakers on Thursday.

The current ratification target of 12 months would amount to "a record tempo" and be difficult to achieve, Vondra told the lower house's committee on European affairs, the Czech agency CTK reported.

Normally it takes 18 months to two years for such agreements to pass through national legislatures, he said.

EU leaders in June set an ambitious target for the reform treaty to be ratified so that it could come into force at the start of 2009, ahead of European Parliament elections scheduled later that year.

The Czech Republic and Sweden, which follows the Czechs in taking over the EU Presidency during the second half of 2009, would prefer for the new treaty to only come into force when all countries had ratified it, Vondra said.

"We do not want to improvise during our presidency," he added.

EU countries are currently attempting to tie up the last outstanding issues concerning June's treaty reform deal with the current Portuguese presidency aiming for agreement ahead of an October 18-19 EU summit.

The vast reform treaty is meant to replace the now-defunct European constitution, streamlining the way the bloc operates.

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