June 16 (Bloomberg) -- European Union foreign ministers quarreled over the fate of the bloc's new governing treaty after a veto in Ireland slammed the brakes on moves toward a more politically united Europe.

EU ministers showcased their disagreements over how to respond to Ireland's rejection of the treaty, which would create the post of full-time president with the goal of upgrading Europe's role in world affairs.

``It would be risky to say that we are going to bring the treaty back to life when we face a blockade,'' Slovenia's Dimitrij Rupel told reporters in Luxembourg today before chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

Ireland's veto in a referendum last week brought the EU's internal discord to the fore, overshadowing matters ranging from the nuclear standoff with Iran to the bloc's response to soaring food and energy prices.

The treaty can only take effect once all 27 EU countries endorse it, giving the 862,000 Irish who voted ``no'' a veto over political life in a bloc of 495 million people. So far, 18 countries have ratified it through parliament.

Ireland's rebuff is a ``cold shower'' for Europe, said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, a former European justice commissioner.

Officials from three countries yet to ratify -- Britain, Italy and Sweden -- pledged to press on with the process, saying that their views shouldn't be stifled by the Irish rejection.

``We don't see any reason to abstain from having our voice just because they had their voice,'' Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said.

Conflicting Views

The debate reflected conflicting views of what the EU is for, with Britain and some countries in eastern Europe seeing it as an economic arrangement and a core group led by France and Germany intent on more political unity.

Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb insisted ``the treaty is not dead,'' while President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic -- another country yet to ratify -- hailed the defeat of an ``elitist artificial project.''

The Czech Republic looms as another obstacle to the treaty, which has been held up in court and faces growing opposition in the upper house of parliament. Klaus's signature may also be required on the ratification document.

Irish voters have rejected an EU treaty once before, in June 2001. The solution then was to put out a declaration that the EU wouldn't infringe on Ireland's military neutrality, and the Irish voted ``yes'' in a second referendum a year later.

Irish Rerun Doubts

Several ministers questioned whether the Irish could be hauled back to the polls again, partly because the EU didn't force reruns in France and the Netherlands after their voters torpedoed the proposed EU constitution in 2005.

The new treaty, signed in Lisbon in December, was meant to point the way out of the impasse triggered by the failure of the constitution. It includes many of the constitution's innovations, such as the 2 1/2-year presidency post.

Known as the Lisbon Treaty, the latest update to the EU's founding Treaty of Rome of 1957, it would also strengthen the foreign-policy chief, give more power to the democratically elected European Parliament and national parliaments, and shrink the European Commission, the EU's executive agency.

In Ireland, the recriminations continued over how the united forces of the government and opposition failed to persuade the public to vote yes. ``No'' campaigners argued that the new rulebook would lessen Ireland's influence in the EU. Backers fretted that the 277-page exercise in EU legalese is unintelligible to the average voter.

Unintelligible

``The treaty refers to sub-paragraphs of former sub- paragraphs and other documents and there is no person this side of Timbuktu who would be in a position to understand it,'' Ireland's representative on the EU commission, Charlie McCreevy, told reporters in Dublin. While McCreevy backs the treaty, he said he hasn't read it.

Ireland sought to shut down talk of a smaller group of countries forming an inner union based on the new treaty, an idea floated over the weekend in Beijing by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, according to Deutsche Presse- Agentur.

``We do not want a two-speed Europe,'' Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin told RTE radio. ``We don't want to be in the slow lane.'' Ireland needs ``time and space'' to propose a way out of the dilemma, Martin said.

The fate of the treaty inflamed the political scene in Britain, where the House of Lords is scheduled to give its final rubber stamp this week. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government rejected calls by the Conservative opposition to stop the parliamentary process and put the treaty to a popular vote.

Brown's Labour Party trails the opposition in opinion polls for an election which has to take place by June 2010. While Britain will ratify the treaty in parliament, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the U.K. won't put Ireland under pressure to change its mind.

``There'll be no bulldozing of the Irish people or government,'' Miliband said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Leon Mangasarian in Luxembourg at lmangasarian@bloomberg.net; James G. Neuger in Luxembourg at jneuger@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 16, 2008 08:36 EDT