European Union finance ministers are today set to bow to French pressure and postpone the adoption of new guidelines that would require Paris to balance its budget by 2004.

France's budget deficit stands at around 1.9 per cent of GDP. Newly elected president Jacques Chirac has said a balanced budget may have to wait until 2007, causing alarm in the European Central bank.

The first round of the French parliamentary elections are on June 9.

Gordon Brown is in Luxembourg for the Ecofin meeting. The FT profiles the chancellor's dislike for the encounters "which he endures with gritted teeth before dashing out to the airport for the first flight home".