(ROME) - Members of Italy's lower house of parliament unanimously approved Thursday ratification of the European Union's Lisbon reform treaty, a week after senators gave it their green light.

The outcome -- which comes more than a month after the treaty was rejected in a referendum in Ireland -- was welcomed with a standing ovation in the Chamber of Deputies in Rome.

Lawmakers from the eurosceptic Northern League -- a part of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government -- voted in favour of the text, but remained sitting, after their demands for a referendum on the issue went unfulfilled.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, who is to sign the ratification into law, welcomed the vote in a statement.

"The unanimous approval of the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon helps to reaffirms Italy's prestige," he said. "I am happy that the government, the majority and the opposition succeeded in uniting their points of view on such a crucial question for the country."

Berlusconi expressed satisfaction, calling it "a particularly important result because the whole of parliament and the government united to support an ambitious project."

The vote comes amid tense relations between Rome and Brussels since the return to power of the right-wing Berlusconi. He has clashed with the European Commission on immigration, the rescue of Italian airline Alitalia and the problem of waste disposal in Naples.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, a former European commissioner, said the ratification of the treaty two months after the arrival of the new government confirmed a political commitment to European integration.

The rejection of the treaty in Ireland, the only country which required a referendum, threw into turmoil the 27-nation bloc's plans to streamline its decision-making. The treaty requires the approval of all member states.

But the ratification process by parliaments of the other member nations has continued, ahead of a European summit in October which is to tackle the problem created by the Irish referendum result.

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