The German and Czech Foreign Ministers expressed cautious optimism Saturday that a deal could be reached to resolve the conflict in the European Union over the 25-member bloc's budget, according to dpa. Speaking after a meeting in Berlin with the Czech Republic's Cyril Svoboda, Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "We are and we want to be confident". Steinmeier said that the E.U. was still trying to recover from the shock caused by the failure to reach a budget agreement in June. For his part, Svoboda said the priority had to be to finish up the negotiations by the end of the year. However, he said, this should not be achieved "at any price". Both ministers went on to stress the good relations between their two countries.
