French President Nicolas Sarkozy has postponed his upcoming trip to Ireland by more than a week due to a heavy work schedule.
Mr Sarkozy, who was scheduled to arrive in the country on July 11th to discuss the Lisbon Treaty, will now visit on July 21st instead.
The French president last night set a June 2009 deadline for resolving Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.
Alluding to his visit to Dublin, Mr Sarkozy said: "I will go there to try to understand with them what we can do to sort out the situation. We mustn't hurry. At the same time, we don't have much time. What is the deadline? June 2009, because there are European elections."
Anti-Lisbon groups have said they plan to protest during Mr Sarkozy's visit against a possible re-run of the treaty.
The Campaign Against the EU Constitution, a coalition of left-wing campaign groups that includes the People's Movement, Sinn Féin and the Irish Anti-War Movement yesterday called for an immediate halt to ratification of the treaty by other EU states.
France, which takes over the EU presidency today, faces a rocky six-month period following the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by Irish voters.
Earlier today, Polish president Lech Kaczynski said he will not sign the treaty, claiming it was pointless to do so after Irish voters rejected it in the referendum last month.
Elsewhere, ratification of the treaty in the Czech Republic has been put on hold until the country's highest court rules on its legality, and this ruling is not expected to take place until October.