Blair presses Sarkozy on EU competition clause

BRUSSELS, June 22 (Reuters) British Prime Minister Tony Blair told French President Nicolas Sarkozy today that a new European Union treaty must provide clarity on the bloc's free-market competition policy, Blair's spokesman said.

''The prime minister is talking to President Sarkozy at the moment about it ... We have to have a situation where there is clarity over the EU's attitude to competition,'' he told reporters at an EU summit.

Sarkozy's spokesman said France was satisfied with a German EU presidency draft mandate for a new reform treaty, which removed the principle of ''free and undistorted competition'' from EU objectives as set out in its defunct constitution.

Reuters SKB VV1658