British Prime Minister David Cameron, who arrived here for the EU's Eastern Partnership Summit on Friday, voiced the desire for EU reform for Britons ahead of a referendum on EU membership in his country.

Already before Cameron's arrival, media reports suggested that the British prime minister intended to use the high-level meeting to open talks with the aim of renegotiating Britain's relationship with the bloc ahead of the 2017 referendum on Britain's possible exit from the bloc.

Speaking ahead of the trip to Riga, Cameron said: "I will start discussions in earnest with fellow leaders on reforming the EU and renegotiating the UK's relationship with it."

"These talks will not be easy. They will not be quick. There will be different views and disagreements along the way.

"But by working together in the right spirit and sticking at it, I believe we can find solutions that will address the concerns of the British people and improve the EU as a whole."

Cameron has promised to call a referendum by the end of 2017 on whether the UK should remain an EU member. He wants the UK to remain part of the EU as long as he can ensure an EU reform which he has yet to formulate.

However, Cameron has said that EU agreements have to be amended to bring about the changes he wants. These changes would include tougher migration control, scrapping plans for an even tighter integrated EU, and returning some powers to national parliaments.

Upon his arrival in the Latvian capital, Cameron said it was in Britain's interests that the summit be a success, but that it was also an opportunity to start some of the discussions on EU.

"There will be ups and downs. One day you will hear this is possible and the next day that something else is not possible. But one thing throughout all of this will be constant, and that is my determination to deliver for the British people a reform of the EU so they have a proper choice in that referendum that will be held before the end of 2017," the British prime minister said, predicting there would be a lot of commotion around the issue. Endit

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