(PARIS) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU presidency, is postponing a trip to Ireland to discuss the EU reform treaty by ten days to July 21 due to his heavy schedule, his office said Tuesday.

Sarkozy was due to travel to Dublin on July 11 after Ireland rejected the EU treaty in a referendum last month, but an aide said the trip would be delayed for "scheduling reasons".

The president travels to Japan early next week for the Group of Eight summit before heading to Strasbourg to deliver an address to the EU parliament on France's priorities for the EU presidency.

He then holds talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Paris on July 12 before hosting a summit of some 40 foreign leaders to launch a new Union for the Mediterranean.

Sarkozy's wife, supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni, is also due to release her new album on July 11.

Irish anti-treaty groups were planning to stage protests during the Dublin visit by Sarkozy, accompanied by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner who irked the Irish when he said ahead of the vote that the Irish would be the first victims of a 'no' victory.

In a television interview on Monday, Sarkozy said his priority as bloc's leader for the coming six months would be to "contain the problem to the Irish", adding that EU countries must continue ratifying the key charter.

But that wish appeared to fall flat when Polish President Lech Kaczynski announced in a newspaper interview that he will not sign the Lisbon Treaty, saying it was pointless after Irish voters rejected it last month.

Sarkozy hopes to use the Dublin visit to hear first-hand voters' concerns about the treaty and also chart a way forward for Ireland's EU relations.

EU leaders asked Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowan to propose solutions at a European summit in October.

Ireland, the only EU state constitutionally obliged to hold a vote on the charter, rejected it by 53.4 percent in a June 12 referendum, plunging the bloc into crisis as the accord must be ratified by all 27 member states.

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