The French prime minister was due to meet privately with European Commission president Romano Prodi before a working lunch with all members of the Commission, the EU's executive arm.

Raffarin was expected to formally ask the Commission to tap into an EU "solidarity fund" designed to help member states cope with natural disasters in the wake of a spate of devastating blazes.

Five people were killed and 50,000 hectares (123,500 acres) of land destroyed in fires that ravaged southern France and the Mediterranean island of Corsica this summer, amid the region's worst drought in a quarter of a century.

But questions about Paris's breach of EU deficit limits and a controversial bailout of engineering group Alstom also were likely to be on the agenda, officials said.

The European Stability and Growth Pact stipulates that the 12 euro-zone countries are not allowed to run up public deficits in excess of 3.0 percent of gross domestic product.

But France is in danger of breaching the three-percent ceiling for the third straight year in 2004.

"It is clear the commission cannot change principle rules depending on" which country is concerned, Prodi told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday. "This type of meeting will never refuse to tackle any problem."

Aides to Raffarin said the prime minister had no plans to meet separately with monetary affairs commissioner Pedro Solbes, responsible for policing the increasingly disputed 1997 pact, nor with competition commissioner Mario Monti.

Monti is studying whether a 2.8-billion-euro (3.1-billion-dollar) bailout of Alstom is compatible with EU state aid rules.

Raffarin's office said the Alstom issue would not be discussed, but EU sources insisted it could be raised.

TERRA.WIRE