France, Dec. 15 -- Paris said that the conditions were not yet right for EU member states to approve the agreement, urging the bloc to postpone upcoming deadlines to allow more work on safeguards for European farmers.

In a statement from the French government issued on Sunday, France stressed that "legitimate measures of protection for our European agriculture" still needed to be secured.

The intervention comes as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is preparing to travel to Brazil later this week to finalise the accord with Mercosur - a bloc made up of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

The agreement, nearly 20 years in the making, would create a free-trade area covering around 722 million people, the largest of i...