Germany should press France to accept cuts in European Union farm aid to ease a deal on the EU's controversial long-term budget, the man billed as Germany's next foreign minister said on Monday.

Such a move would mark a U-turn for Berlin. Gerhard Schröder, the chancellor, has sided with President Jacques Chirac of France in refusing to review a 2002 agreement that set EU farm spending at €377bn ($458bn, £251bn) or 40 per cent of the EU's budget over the next seven years.