Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has told his British counterpart David Cameron not to treat Hungarians living in the UK as “migrants” or “parasites”.

"Our hardworking compatriots contribute more to the UK economy than they receive in hand-outs”, Orban said during a joint news conference with Cameron in Budapest on Thursday.

"For us it is very important that we are not considered as migrants. Words matter here ... We would like to make it quite clear that we are not migrants into the UK. But we are the citizens of a state that belongs to the European Union who can take jobs anywhere freely within the European Union ... We do not want to go to the UK and take something from them. We want to work there, and I think that Hungarians are working well. They should get respect and they should not suffer discrimination.

East European countries opposed to UK's demand for slashing EU immigrants.

According to Orban, there are some 55,000 Hungarian-born citizens working in Britain and they must be respected and get fair treatment.

This is yet another warning for Cameron who is battling to secure support before Britain's referendum on EU membership by the end of 2017.

The Hungarian premier backed Cameron’s other proposals on the EU reforms.

"Hungary fully supported three out of four of Cameron's proposals but not his plan to restrict benefits for EU migrants for their first four years in Britain”, Orban said.

Cameron wants the EU to cut bureaucracy, and shift more powers from Brussels to member states. However, his demand for action to reduce EU migrants coming to the UK has proved the sticking point with EU leaders, in particular with eastern European countries.

Despite opposition, Cameron is still pushing for his plan to stop EU migrants claiming in-work benefits for four years. Cameron said the plans "remain on the table" but that he is "open to alternative solutions" before a meeting of EU leaders next month in Brussels.

"Goodwill and creative thinking can find solutions," he said.