Pressure mounted on Tony Blair yesterday to hold a referendum on the new EU constitution after the man behind the project said he would be “very pleased” to see his ideas put to the vote in Britain.

The surprising intervention from the former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing created an unlikely ally for the Tory party, which is orchestrating the campaign for a vote.

On the eve of the publication of the EU convention M Giscard, its author, tried to ease the anxiety about his plans, saying the idea that he was trying to offend or destroy Britain was “nonsense”.

The two key elements of the constitution were the creation of an EU President and to help build a common foreign policy, he told the BBC. British concerns had been taken on board and politically sensitive words such as “federal” would be replaced. Asked for his views on a referendum, he said: “We are not demanding that there will be a referendum but we will be very pleased.”

Ministers tried to defuse the growing row over a referendum. Peter Hain, Welsh Secretary and the Government representative to the convention, said: “This will take another year to negotiate. There’s a lot of work to do over the next few weeks . . . so let’s just calm down and see how this goes.”

Any indication that Brussels will have the power to influence military planning will be challenged by the Tories.

Equally, any hint that EU members are not free to shape their own foreign policy will be vigorously opposed.

John Redwood, the former trade minister, said both defence and foreign policy were under threat under the articles contained in the previous draft of the constitution published earlier this month.

“This is a blockbuster of a Treaty,” he said. “It creates a strong centralised state called the EU. Its authors are determined to stop countries like the UK having their own foreign and defence policies.”

Copyright 2003 Times Newspapers Ltd.