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Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed a first constitution for the European Union as a good deal for Britain on Saturday but now must sell it to his eurosceptic public in a referendum.
If he fails, the treaty finally sealed over long hours in Brussels, will be thrown into doubt.
"Give us the chance to make our case for a different type of Europe which is taking place, one in which we can feel at home," Blair appealed after an occasionally heated summit of EU leaders agreed a long-delayed constitutional deal.
Analysts say he has a mountain to climb and opinion polls show a majority of Britons oppose closer EU integration.
Blair was beaten in European Parliament elections last week by opposition Conservatives who reject the constitution. A fringe party that demands Britain withdraw from the bloc completely picked up 16 percent of the vote.
The right-leaning Daily Telegraph described the move as "perhaps the most serious blunder of his (Blair's) premiership".
Blair insisted he had only opted for integration where it suited Britain, retaining sovereign control of its key policy areas - defence, foreign policy, tax and social security.
Nor would European courts be able to use a Charter of Fundamental Rights, incorporated into the constitution, to challenge Britain's light-touch labour laws as British business groups had feared, ministers said.
"We made no concessions on key issues. We got the lot," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told a news conference.
Asked if he could win the vote, Blair replied: "It depends on whether people listen to what is actually in the treaty."
Blair's decision to hold a referendum, probably late next year - an attempt to neutralise Europe as an issue at a general election expected in May 2005 - has caused gloom among fellow EU leaders who believe he will be hard-pressed to win it.
At home, the Conservatives were quick to attack.
"This constitution will be bad for Britain and bad for Europe. The majority of British people and business oppose it," Conservative foreign affairs spokesman Michael Ancram said. "Europe will now have much more control." Blair also faced criticism from the British press.
Britain's biggest selling tabloid, The Sun, labelled Blair the "Betrayer" while the Daily Mail newspaper called on the British public to make their voice heard through the referendum.
"Mr Blair and other European leaders, revealing the yawning chasm between our ruling elites and the voters they consistently treat with contempt, are now pushing the EU dramatically further along the path to a single superstate."
To help make their case, British officials highlighted what they said was Britain's confrontation with Germany and France, who wanted more harmonisation of power at an EU level.

Copyright Reuters, 2004

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