UK to ratify EU treaty even if Irish "no"-diplomat

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain has told European Union partners it will continue parliamentary ratification of the bloc's Lisbon reform treaty even if Ireland votes "No" in a knife-edge referendum on Thursday, a senior EU diplomat said.

The diplomat said London had reassured key partners it has "no intention to pull the plug on this", despite strong pressure from Eurosceptics demanding a British referendum or the scrapping of the ratification process.

The House of Commons has already approved the treaty to streamline the EU's creaking institutions and it is now going through the upper House of Lords.

Asked about the report, an official in Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office in London said: "It is the intention of this government to complete the legislative programme that it has begun on the Lisbon treaty."

(reporting by Paul Taylor, additional reporting by David Clarke, editing by David Brunnstrom)