(WARSAW) - Polish President Lech Kaczynski will not sign the EU's Lisbon Treaty, he announced in an interview published Tuesday, saying it was pointless after Irish voters rejected it in a referendum last month.

"For the moment, the question of the treaty is pointless," the conservative Kaczynski, who is considered a eurosceptic, was quoted as saying in the online version of the daily Dziennik.

Poland's parliament voted in April to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, a key accord meant to streamline EU decision-making, but the presidential seal of approval is still needed.

Bronislaw Komorowski, the speaker of Poland's lower house of parliament and a key ally of liberal, europhile Prime Minister Donald Tusk, blasted Kaczynski.

"This announcement surprises and worries me, all the more so because this is a treaty that the president himself negotiated," Komorowski told the news station TVN24.

"I hope this is just a mood swing," Komorowski said, adding that Kaczynski should change his mind and approve the treaty, which the president had trumpeted as a success for Poland after EU negotiations last year.

"He should sign it because that's what he agreed with his fellow European leaders," Komorowski added.

Irish voters rejected the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum on June 12, putting EU reform plans in jeopardy as it needs to be ratified by all 27 EU member states to enter into force.

Kaczynski's move is a serious blow to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has set himself the task of finding a way to overcome the Irish rejection of the treaty as France takes over the six-month rotating EU presidency on Tuesday.

The Czech Republic will also likely pose a problem for Sarkozy with many lawmakers in the centre-right ruling coalition not keen on the treaty, including eurosceptic President Vaclav Klaus.

"It is difficult to say how all this will end. But on the other hand, to say that without the treaty there won't be a Union is not serious," said Kaczynski.

He noted the same argument was used by proponents of the Lisbon Treaty's forebear, the EU constitution, after French and Dutch voters scuppered it in referendums in 2005.

"The Union nevertheless functioned, it is functioning and will continue to function," he said. "Certainly it isn't ideal, but a structure this complicated couldn't be ideal."

At a summit in Brussels last month EU leaders insisted the ratification process would continue, but agreed to an Irish request to delay trying to find a way to overcome its "No" vote until their next meeting in October.

Kaczynski's move recalls Poland's bitter debate ahead of April's ratification vote.

Then, the president and his identical twin, conservative opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, warned that Poland's interests were at stake.

They attacked the Charter of Fundamental Rights, tied to the Lisbon Treaty, claiming it could pave the way for gay marriages in deeply Catholic Poland and the restitution of properties lost by Germans after the Polish-German border was redrawn by World War II's victorious Allies in 1945.

Poland, like Britain, has an opt-out from the charter.

The Kaczynskis accused Tusk of failing to protect their hard-won opt-out -- Jaroslaw Kaczynski also negotiated the treaty as premier, before losing power in an election in October.

They finally backed off from sinking ratification in parliament after finding themselves out of step with public opinion.

Tusk had raised the spectre of a referendum, and opinion surveys suggested 65 percent of Poles would back the treaty.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.