Efforts to revive the European Union's moribund constitutional treaty are unlikely to gain momentum until 2007 at the earliest, Germany's new foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, indicated on Wednesday.

Speaking in Berlin at a ceremony where he took over from outgoing minister Joschka Fischer, Mr Steinmeier said he expected "the task to fall to Germany to deal with the constitution" during Berlin's EU presidency in the first half of 2007. He said Germany ? one of the EU's strongest supporters of the constitution ? "would seek to advance progress" on ensuring the treaty was eventually adopted.