Early budget rejected by Ireland's Prime Minister Brian Cowen

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen has rejected opposition calls to bring forward December's budget announcement to next week.

Mr Cowen is facing pressure to quit and call an election because of an agreement by the EU and the International Monetary Fund to provide loans of up to 90bn euros to help ease Ireland's debts.

Addressing the Dail (parliament), he said the timeline for the budget had to be adhered to.