Czech President Vaclav Klaus branded Ireland's foreign minister a hypocrite Wednesday, in an unseemly row threatening to cast a cloud over EU efforts to resolve a crisis triggered by Irish voters.

Notoriously eurosceptic Klaus, whose country takes over the European Union's presidency in January, made the comments after Foreign Minister Micheal Martin accused him of "inappropriate" remarks at a meeting with Irish eurosceptics.

"Such hypocrisy I cannot accept," Klaus told Czech reporters in Dublin, quoted by the Czech Republic's CTK news agency. "If someone doesn't please me, I will say so to his face -- and not behind his back."

He added: "I really sense the huge problems of democracy disappearing in Europe, but when I see the reactions of the Irish foreign minister and some of the Irish press, I think it is even worse than I expected."

His remarks came shortly before he left Dublin at the end of a three-day state visit here, which had been going mostly smoothly until Klaus met the leader of eurosceptic group Libertas, Declan Ganley, on Tuesday evening.

Libertas was a key force behind Ireland's "no" vote in a June referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty, plunging the EU into limbo since all 27 member nations have to ratify it for it to come into force.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen is struggling to decide whether to hold a second referendum, but has promised to come up with proposals for how to proceed at a December EU summit.

But Klaus, who welcomed the Irish "no" vote in June, reiterated in Dublin that he was "afraid that freedom and democracy will not be enhanced by the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.

"On the contrary," he said in a joint press conference Tuesday evening with Ganley, aired by state broadcaster RTE.

"In this respect I think we share the views with Mr. Ganley. I would say that the Czechs share the views of the citizens of Ireland and we followed with great interest the referendum," he said.

The Irish foreign ministry said the remarks were "an inappropriate intervention in the context of such a state visit, particularly at a time when the Irish government is engaged in discussions with our partners in the EU."

But Martin sought to downplay the significance of Klaus's remarks, saying: "He doesn't represent the views of the (Czech) government in terms of his articulation of his views on Europe."

Klaus's political influence is strong, but his powers are limited, and it might be difficult for him to veto the Lisbon Treaty if it is approved by the constitutional court and parliament.

Cowen refused to be drawn into the row, saying Klaus "has well-known views on various aspects of policy which he has consistently held.... I don't wish to add anything to what the minister for foreign affairs had to say."

The Lisbon Treaty, which was aimed at streamlining the EU's workings to take into account its mainly eastwards expansion, required the approval of all 27 EU member states.

But 53.4 percent of Irish voters rejected it in a June referendum, which plunged the EU into a still-unresolved crisis.

In other comments, Klaus compared Ganley to Soviet-era dissidents in his own country, who include his predecessor as Czech president, Vaclav Havel. "I think Mr. Ganley is a dissident, sort of dissident in the EU setting just now.

"We were quite happy in the communist era when west European politicians were coming to us and met our dissidents at the time. So I am meeting Mr Ganley in the same style and the same way," he said.