Ireland will hold a referendum in early October on the European Union's Lisbon reform treaty, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said today.

"I feel we will be in a position to hold a second referendum at the start of October," he told a news conference in Brussels after an EU summit.

The treaty sets out reforms intended to streamline EU decision making and needs the approval of all 27 member states to go into force. Irish voters rejected the treaty in a first referendum last year.