(BRDO PRI KRANJU) - Slovenia urged its European Union partners Tuesday to carefully weigh how to ratify the EU's new reform treaty, as Portugal considers holding a potentially perilous referendum.

The treaty, signed in Lisbon last month, will streamline the way the 27-nation European bloc is run and replaces the failed constitution, which was torpedoed by referendums in France and the Netherlands in 2005.

"Europe is very much interconnected and we have to ask ourselves how events in one country influence events in another country where the situation may be somewhat different," Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa told reporters.

"All those of us now making decisions about how we intend to undertake this very delicate stage of the project ... have to bear the broader perspective in mind, not only the domestic issues but also pan-European issues," he said.

Of the EU's member countries, only Ireland is constitutionally bound to hold a referendum. Most nations are expected to ratify the treaty through their parliaments although some, including Portugal, are yet to commit.

However Jansa, whose country took over from Portugal as the EU president nation last week, expressed optimism that the treaty would be adopted there even if it were put to the vote.

"Even if there were to be a referendum in Portugal, it would be a positive one," he saidat a press conference with European Commission Vice President Margot Wallstroem.

EU leaders have committed to ratify the treaty before the next European Parliament elections in 2009 to ensure that the bloc's institutional woes do not undermine the vote.

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