European Union leaders were Thursday sticking to their differing positions on how much the bloc should spend over the next seven years, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel warning that it was impossible to predict whether a deal would be reached. dpa reported. Speaking ahead of a budget summit in Brussels, British Prime Minister David Cameron remained the most vehement among the 26 EU leaders who want to limit EU spending given the tight finances and sceptical voters back home. "The EU should not be immune from the sorts of pressures that we've had to reduce spending, find efficiencies and make sure that we spend money wisely," he said. "When we were last here in November, the numbers that were put forward were much too high. They need to come down and if they don't come down, there won't be a deal," Cameron added. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte agreed that "you can't explain to citizens that there have to be savings everywhere, but that Europe continues to spend money." At the same time, he promised to champion EU spending on research, innovation, growth and jobs. Diplomats said Cameron, Hollande, Merkel and Monti were also due to meet bilaterally with EU President Herman Van Rompuy, who will chair the summit and present a new compromise proposal. Van Rompuy delayed the start of the summit by two-and-a-half hours to 5:30 pm (1630 GMT), with EU sources saying that there was "a bit more work" needed on "fine-tuning (the) revised proposal." -- SPA
