European Union finance ministers have agreed that steps must be taken to ensure that there is no repeat of Greece's recent revision of its budget data in any member-state.

Luxembourg's prime minister and finance minister, Mr Jean-Claude Juncker, said the EU should consider imposing sanctions on countries that send false budgetary information to Brussels.

"We need independent statistics offices in the European Union and better monitoring of the national statistics authorities," he said.

During a meeting in Luxembourg yesterday, the ministers discussed Greece's recent admission that it had breached the EU's 3 per cent budget limit every year since 2000.

In a joint statement, the ministers praised the willingness of the Greek authorities to co-operate with a European Commission investigation into the country's public finances since 1997.

"On this basis, it will be possible for the Council and the Commission as well as the Greek government to draw the necessary consequences, each in its domain, to improve the quality of budgetary data as a matter of priority in order to avoid future problems.

"Revisions of budgetary data, similar to those that have now been detected in the case of Greece, must not occur again in the community," they said.

Some ministers expressed concern at France's decision to cut fuel taxes later this year, in breach of an agreement made in June that no country would take unilateral action over oil prices.

The Dutch finance minister, Mr Gerrit Zalm, who chaired yesterday's meeting, said the ministers had engaged in an intensive discussion on how to respond to the rise in oil prices but had failed to reach a common conclusion.

The Minister for Finance, Mr Cowen, said Ireland opposes proposed changes in the informal rules that govern the relationship between the Commission and the member-states in managing the EU's budget.

The Commission wants to introduce greater flexibility so that funds could be moved more easily from one budgetary heading to another.