BRUSSELS (AP) — Prime Minister David Cameron faced off Thursday against the 27 other European Union leaders, telling them to grant his country a new deal to settle the festering issue of their relationship or face a possible divorce as soon as this summer.

Cameron said he was "battling for Britain" at a Brussels summit — and for a less intrusive EU that would benefit other countries, too. But French President Francois Hollande struck a cautionary note, warning that no individual leader should be allowed to stop closer European cooperation.

"It's the EU in question, not just one country in the EU," Hollande said as he arrived. "I want Britain to stay in the EU. But I hope most of all that Europe can advance, can be stronger."

Cameron is seeking changes to the U.K.-EU relationship that will let him urge Britons to vote "yes" to continued membership in a referendum that could come as early as June. He told his fellow leaders that he needed a substantial deal that would be "credible for the British people." The British referendum on EU membership is bound to be hard-fought, since few issues in Britain have as much resonance as its relationship with the EU.

David Fuller's view

I think most of us in the UK, not to mention across Europe, have been reading and wondering about this for long enough.  Therefore I will close with the comments of Lithuania’s impressive Prime Minister, Dalia Grybauskaite, who said as she arrived at the summit:

“Everybody will have (their) own drama, and then we will agree.”