Roddy DUBLIN Irish voters, in a stunning blow to the European Unions's eastward expansion plans, overwhelmingly rejected the Nice Treaty on EU reform in a referendum on Friday. The treaty, which must be approved by all 15 EU members, is intended to make reforms to allow the bloc to accept 12 new members, most of them from Eastern Europe. The treaty is now dead as far as I can see,'' opposition Labor Party leader Ruairi Quinn said, summing up the rout for the Irish political establishment which had strongly backed ratification. The official in charge of the vote count said 54 percent of the electorate voted against the Nice Treaty and 46 percent in favor. The turnout was low, with just over 32 percent of the 2.9 million electorate casting their ballots, Reuters reported.The EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Guenter Verheugen, said however the Irish rejection would not stop expansion despite a requirement for all EU states to ratify the treaty. We would continue (the process) with the same speed and the same quality,'' he told reporters during a visit to Slovenia, adding that the EU Commission would immediately start to look for a solution. Britain said it hoped the Nice Treaty could still be ratified by all member states despite the Irish rejection. Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus began accession talks in 1998. They were joined last year by Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta. The timing of the rejection is deeply embarrassing for the EU, whose leaders meet late next week in the Swedish City of Gothenburg along with leaders of the candidate nations for their regular six-monthly summit. And Irish anti-treaty campaigners, who broke into cheers when the outcome was announced at the Dublin Customs House, vowed to beat the government again if it attempted another vote. FIGHT SECOND REFERENDUM The government is talking about having a second referendum but we are not children,'' said John O'Dowd, a spokesman for the National Platform. In Irish or English, 'no' means 'no' and doesn't mean maybe.'' Officials in Hungary and the Czech Republic regarded the vote as bad news. Hungary saw it as a slap on the face just after Budapest overhauled its currency regime to prepare for EU membership. Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi said a no vote would be pretty bad'' and could hurt the mood of entry talks. He believed that in the worst case scenario'' some solution could be still worked out to keep the enlargement process on track. I don't think that it has the potential to delay entry but the atmosphere (of accession talks) would definitely change.'' A Czech Foreign Ministry official that if the Nice Treaty was not approved, it would be a bad sign for us and for other candidate countries....'' Europe's common currency, the euro, was steady after the vote, holding near 85 cents in afternoon trading in New York, unchanged from its previous U.S. close. Some analysts had speculated that an Irish no-vote could depress the currency as it would indicate a lack of consensus among EU members. But others suggested it could be a blessing in disguise, as an EU expansion would include countries who are a weaker economic footing. Even Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's Dublin constituency voted strongly against the Nice Treaty. The overall tally was 529,478 against and 453,461 for the treaty. GOVERNMENT DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED'' The result is clear, the government is deeply disappointed by the referendum result,'' Ahern told a news conference. The result will come as an unexpected shock to our partners and to the applicant countries who are to meet in Gothenburg next week and now face a potential additional obstacle to the timetable for enlargement,'' he added. Ireland is the only EU member required by its constitution to ratify the Nice Treaty by referendum, and the outcome left its leaders scratching their heads about what to do next. I fully respect the outcome of this referendum and we will need to study the lessons from it. They extend beyond Ireland,'' Ahern said. Campaigners against the Nice Treaty, a diverse mix of pacifists, environmentalists and Irish republicans, were delighted. We're all overjoyed...this is a resounding victory,'' said Justin Barrett, spokesman of the No to Nice Campaign, whose bold red-and-white posters blanketed the country. The anti-treaty groups had made direct appeals to voters, saying that under the treaty Ireland would lose influence in the EU, forfeit its neutrality and have to start paying out to support the new countries joining from Eastern Europe. The government's campaign was generally seen to be remote and ineffective. Ireland has given strong backing to EU treaties in the past, but the mood had soured ahead of Friday's vote.