Euro finance ministers' head Jean-Claude Juncker rejected Monday any debt crisis solutions that would divide the EU, reacting to German-French ideas for an inner Eurozone club.

"It is not good to artificially divide the EU into two groups, it is important not to create differences between the 27 (EU member states) and the 17" members of the euro currency area, he told reporters.

EU leaders called on Wednesday for Brussels to have power to rewrite national budgets to ensure the euro survives amid concerns that such discipline could clash with democracy.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Brussels would have to be given the power to scrutinize national budgets and demand changes before they are adopted.

European Union foreign ministers voiced their "alarm" Monday at sectarian clashes that left 24 dead in Egypt overnight, demanding that freedom of worship be upheld by post-revolution authorities.

"I am very concerned, very alarmed about the clashes in Cairo", said British Foreign Secretary William Hague as he arrived in Luxembourg for talks with his 26 EU counterparts.