Ireland says referendum on the line over Lisbon guarantees

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen has written a letter to his EU counterparts asking for support in making Ireland's guarantees on the Lisbon Treaty as watertight as possible, saying he will otherwise not win a second referendum.

The letter, sent a day ahead of a two-day meeting of all EU leaders in Brussels, where they will deal with making the Lisbon Treaty more attractive to Irish voters, says the precise legal form the guarantees will take is "crucial."

Ireland is trying to per...