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IRELAND´S approval of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty leaves only Poland and the Czech Republic of the EU's 27 members to finalise the ratification already passed by their respective parliaments.

A problem may remain with the Czechs because their euro-sceptic president Vaclav Klaus is said to be seeking further guidance from the country's constitutional court. If this happens the final unanimous acceptance of the reform Treaty could be delayed until some time next spring -- perhaps after the British general election has been held.

The widespread celebration of the Irish decision was probably not shared by David Cameron and his close advisers -- particularly since a new eve-of-Conference poll has shown that some 80 per cent of Conservative constituency members want a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty even if it has become law by the time a Conservative government takes office. Such a move would, of course, be constitutionally inconceivable but a referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union altogether would not be, and this is what many Conservatives really want. Therefore at the Conservative Party Conference beginning tomorrow in Manchester Mr Cameron will need to make an absolutely unambiguous statement on his future EU policy.

If he fails to do so, some people may begin to imagine a future in which under a Conservative government Britain and the Czech Republic would be virtually the only European countries facing the future outside the EU. That would make the general election very interesting indeed.