Polish president Lech Kaczynski said on Tuesday that if Ireland ratifies the Lisbon Treaty he will sign this document approved by the Polish parliament.

"I took part in negotiating the treaty and I support it," Polish news agency PAP quoted Kaczynski as saying.

Earlier in the day Kaczynski said he would not sign the Lisbon Treaty for the time being, since he considers the document "dead".

"Without this document the EU continues to exist," the president told the Dziennik daily.

The president said that he might sign the Treaty when Ireland changed its position. But this has to be a sovereign decision, not taken under pressure from other EU members.

"If the principle of unanimity is broken once, it will cease to exist," the president said.

The Lisbon treaty, which aims to streamline the bloc's institutions after expansion, was approved in April by the Polish parliament, but needs signature of the president to become effective.

It must be ratified by all the 27 member states before taking into effect. But Ireland rejected it in a referendum in early June, a move plunging the 27-member bloc into crisis over its integration process.

The European Commission said that 11 countries had completed the ratification process so far.

(Xinhua News Agency July 2, 2008)