European Union foreign ministers insisted on Monday that the EU reform treaty was alive despite Ireland's "No" vote but conceded they had no quick fixes for rescuing it.
Their monthly meeting in Luxembourg was a first opportunity for EU officials to start picking up the pieces after Thursday's Irish referendum cast doubt over the survival of a pact meant to bolster the EU's economic and political weight in the world.
EU leaders will want to hear from Prime Minister Brian Cowen at a summit in Brussels later this week whether he sees any hope of winning a new referendum, a step Irish officials have not ruled out but which they believe is a high-risk strategy.
"The people's decision has to be respected and we have to chart a way through ... It is far too early for proffering any solutions or proposals," Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said on arrival. "There are no quick fix solutions."
But for the moment, Dublin's 26 partners in the bloc are not taking "No" for an answer and most insist that ratification of the project should continue elsewhere in the bloc.
"The treaty is not dead. The EU is in constant crisis management - we go from one crisis to another and finally we find a solution," Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb told reporters, noting the bloc had always pushed ahead with integration despite past rebuffs from voters.
"I believe the European spirit is strong ... and we'll see more ratifications," said Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
He stressed it was up to Ireland to propose ways out of the impasse: "I don't have any solutions."
"Life has to continue," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, whose role was to have been beefed up with a real foreign service under the Lisbon Treaty, which will not now come into force as planned next January 1.
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