Brussels - The European Union's executive body is set on Wednesday to warn at least six member states that they are going too deeply into debt as they struggle to ward off recession.

But analysts say that the European Commission is likely to give euro users France, Greece, Ireland, Malta and Spain, and non-euro country Latvia, several years to bring their budgets back into line with EU rules, as the 27-member bloc faces the worst economic crisis in 60 years.

Under EU rules, national governments are allowed to run a budget deficit of up to 3 per cent of gross national product (GDP). States which violate the rules too flagrantly can ultimately face a fine.

But the economic crisis which engulfed Europe in the second half of 2008 has pushed many EU governments deep into the red as they struggle to cope with decimated tax revenues and a sharp rise in emergency spending.

According to commission figures, France, the second-largest economy in the euro area, ran a budget deficit of 3.2 per cent of GDP in 2008, and is tipped to reach 5.4 per cent this year.

Spain, which recorded a budget surplus from 2005 to 2007, plunged to a deficit of 3.4 per cent in 2008, with a figure of 6.2 per cent expected for 2009.

And Ireland, formerly the EU's best economic performer, with a budget surplus every year from 1997 to 2007, in 2008 ran up a deficit of 6.3 per cent - a figure which is expected to reach 11 per cent in 2009, and a horrific 13 per cent in 2010.

However, while the commission is widely expected to give the six the first formal warning that they are breaking the rules, it is not expected to push for an immediate return to discipline.

On Tuesday, Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek, whose country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, said that the commission was eyeing a return to balanced budgets in 2012.

The comment embarrassed the EU's monetary commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, who pointed out that no such deadline had been agreed with finance ministers. (dpa)