"No" vote on EU treaty would hurt Ireland: Irish PM

DUBLIN (Reuters) - A "No" vote by Irish voters in next year's referendum on the European Union's reform treaty would isolate Ireland from the bloc, Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said in an interview published on Friday.

Ireland is the only country in the 27-nation bloc due to hold a referendum to ratify the treaty, which was signed by EU leaders in Lisbon on Thursday to reform institutions and give it stronger leadership.

All EU countries need to ratify the treaty if it is to take effect from 2009 as planned.

Ahern told the Irish Times newspaper the government had to "win" the referendum and said a rejection by voters would be "an enormously retrograde step for Ireland in every way".

"The implications are quite simple. We would cut ourselves apart from Europe and put ourselves apart from being a part of the decision-making process of Europe, and all that that entails into the wider world," he said.

"There is no sector of Irish society that would not be dramatically affected in a negative way if we vote No," he added.

The Irish referendum is widely expected to be held in the first half of 2008 and opponents are already gearing up for it.

France's veteran far-right politician Jean Marie Le Pen planned to visit Ireland early in 2008 to help "No" campaigners, his deputy said on Thursday.

A poll in the Irish Sun on Thursday showed 72 percent of those surveyed were undecided, 22 percent backed the treaty and 6 percent were against it. The survey showed 87 percent believed membership of the EU had been good for Ireland.

Ireland, whose economic boom over the last decade was underpinned in part by EU funding, is generally seen as being among the region's most pro-European countries but that has not always guaranteed success at the ballot box in the past.

In 2001 Irish voters rejected the Nice Treaty designed to enable EU enlargement, forcing the government to hold a second vote that was widely criticised as undemocratic at the time. A second vote is unlikely to be an option in 2008.

(Reporting by Jonathan Saul, Editing by Matthew Jones)