Europe Minister Jim Murphy said it was now up to the Dublin government to come up with a way forward after Irish voters rejected the treaty by a majority of 53.4% to 46.6%.

The result, announced on Friday evening, plunged Europe's leaders into a new crisis.

By law, the treaty - which would create an elected EU president and an EU foreign minister, while cutting back the number of national vetoes - can only be implemented if it is ratified by all 27 member states.

However, Mr Murphy insisted that the vote in Ireland - the only country to put it to a referendum - did not mean that the treaty was dead.

"Only those who previously wished to dance on the grave of this treaty, even before the Irish referendum, are declaring it dead," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

He said that it was still a good treaty for Britain and suggested the the Irish could find themselves isolated as the other member states complete the ratification process towards the end of the year.

"When we get to the end of that process probably towards the end of this year, then it is important to reflect then - is it 26 governments who have ratified and is it one that hasn't, and then we discuss the way forward," he said.

He said that the Irish government needed to come forward with proposals to resolve the crisis when EU leaders meet in Brussels at the end of next week.

"The Irish government needs to come to the European Council meeting next week to tell us, the United Kingdom Government and other governments in the European Union, how they think we should be taking this forward based on the sovereign decision of the Irish people," he said.