Barroso sees EU treaty compromise at June council

PARIS, May 24 (Reuters) European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said today he thought a compromise to break a deadlock over the European Union's institutional reform might be possible at next month's meeting of EU leaders.

''I think it's possible to have a compromise at the European Council in June,'' Barroso told France's Europe 1 radio.

''I think that we can have a clear and precise mandate then for an intergovernmental conference which could start just afterwards, maybe in July. So maybe during the Portuguese presidency in the second half of the year, we could have a new treaty which would then be ratified by the different member states,'' he said.

New French President Nicolas Sarkozy met Barroso yesterday to discuss his vision of a ''simplified treaty'' to replace the EU constitution that was rejected by French voters in a 2005 referendum.

Barroso told reporters a consensus was emerging among EU leaders in support of Sarkozy's idea.

REUTERS AE SSC1400