Brown offers EU treaty assurances

A judgement on the High Court bid by tycoon Stuart Wheeler is due next week.

But a judge in the case earlier expressed "surprise" ministers were going ahead with ratification and asked that they "stay their hand".

Mr Brown said the request "fits in with our timetable" and "of course" it would not be ratified before the ruling.

The bill that would ratify the Lisbon Treaty passed its last Parliamentary hurdle in the House of Lords on Wednesday and gained Royal Assent on Thursday.

But the process is not technically completed until the "instruments of ratification" are deposited in Rome.

Referendum case

Government officials say the judge's letter and Mr Brown's comments do not change the original timetable to complete ratification and say it was always the aim to complete ratification in July, after the court judgement.

Friday's direction from High Court judge Lord Justice Richards appears to have been prompted by a letter from Treasury lawyers.

After the EU (Amendment) Act gained Royal Assent, they wrote to the High Court saying: "The government is now proceeding to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon."

In a direction published on Friday, Lord Justice Richards said: "The court is very surprised that the government apparently proposes to ratify, while the claimant's challenge to the decision not to hold a referendum on ratification is before the court.