With French voters rejecting the EU constitution and polls showing Dutch voters are likely to do the same, Poland pondered Tuesday if it should go ahead with its own referendum on the EU basic law.

"The French have sown trouble in Poland," headlined Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

"'The constitution is dead. Why vote?' right-wing parties are saying. And it would appear the left is too weak to force the vote in the autumn," said the paper.

Prime Minister Marek Belka favours a referendum to decide whether to adopt or reject the constitution.

"I am convinced that the best way to adopt the (EU) constitution is by a referendum and the date in the fall is a very fortunate one. A 'yes' vote will only strengthen Poland's position," he said Monday, as all of Europe reeled after the resounding French 'non'.

President Aleksander Kwasniewski has called for consultations in the next few days to allow Poland to take a "sovereign decision on the way and date of ratification" of the constitution.

But a call has gone up from right-wing parties to cancel the popular vote, with Jaroslaw Kaczynski of the Law and Justice party saying that, following the French 'non' "which will soon be reinforced by the Dutch decision, the case is closed and holding a referendum in Poland would be senseless."

"I am an avowed enemy of this constitution, just as I am an avowed supporter of Poland belonging to the EU," said Kacyznski's twin brother Lech, who is currently mayor of Warsaw and also the favourite candidate to win presidential elections due in October.

The French "no" was fueled notably by discontent at a perceived anglo-Saxon liberal slant enshrined in the new EU charter, signed in Rome last October, as well as a perception that jobs will be lost to the cheap labour markets of central and eastern Europe's newcomer states.

Donald Tusk, head of the liberal Civic Platform party -- which is running neck and neck with Law and Justice in polls ahead of legislative elections in September -- said Poland should "stop the process of ratifying a treaty that no longer exists."

The ultra-Catholic, nationalist party, the Polish League of Families -- which made substantial gains in European Parliament elections last June -- has asked Belka to "remove his signature" from the constitutional treaty "to set an example for other countries and allow the constitution to go to its rightful place -- in the rubbish bin."