EU referendum 'not ruled out'

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As European foreign ministers gathered in Luxembourg ahead of this week's crucial leaders' summit in Brussels, Mr Hoon said that the prime minister-in-waiting had not ruled out a referendum on any new treaty.

"Clearly a judgment has got to be made in terms of what is in the final package," he told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.

The comments by Mr Hoon, who is tipped for a return to the Cabinet after Mr Brown enters No 10 next week, come after weeks of claims by Tony Blair and other ministers that a referendum would not be necessary.

Earlier, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett was sticking to the line that the most the Berlin summit would produce was an "amending treaty" to streamline decision-making in EU now it has expanded to 27 member states.

"We do not want to see a constitutional treaty or a treaty that has the characteristics of a constitution," she said in an interview with BBC1's Sunday AM. "We will look at anything that will, if you like, tidy up the rule book of the European Union now that we are 27 and not 12 or 15."

Nevertheless, she acknowledged that some countries were still hoping to revive the EU constitution rejected two years ago by voters in France and the Netherlands - something Britain is determined to resist.

And she admitted that it was still not certain how the negotiations would turn out.

"One of the things that is slightly nerve-wracking to be honest, is that it is still far from clear what proposals the German presidency feels able to put," she said.

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague welcomed the suggestion that there could now be a referendum. "If this is a U-turn by ministers it will be a very welcome one. Labour promised a referendum on the EU constitution and it would be utterly unacceptable for them to break their word," he said.