Judge: Delay EU treaty ratification

LONDON, June 20 (UPI) -- A British judge ruled Friday that the government must delay ratification of the European Union Lisbon treaty until he rules on a challenge to it.

The High Court justice said that he was "surprised" that the government would vote on the treaty, meant to replace the ones that created the Common Market and EU, before he has decided the challenge by Stuart Wheeler, a millionaire opponent of the union, The Independent reported.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that the judge's timetable coincides with the government's.

The treaty received a major setback last week when voters rejected it in Ireland, the only country planning a referendum. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had hoped to open a new era of European unity during his upcoming six months as EU president, has set himself the task of reversing the Irish vote, The Times of London reported.

Sarkozy initially called the Irish "bloody fools." But he later became more diplomatic.

"We have to manage the Irish 'no' with calm, with sang-froid and neither dramatize nor minimize it," he said.