Nicholas Sarkozy launched a bitter public attack on Peter Mandelson today by pinning some of the blame for the Irish rejection of the Lisbon treaty on Britain’s EU commissioner.

The French president listed the EU’s trade negotiator as a factor in the dramatic referendum vote which dominated discussions at European leaders’ summit dinner last night.

Mr Sarkozy criticised Mr Mandelson, a former Cabinet minister, after being asked whether he thought the European Commission was at fault for the “no” vote. French officials have been muttering all week that the Commission did not do enough to campaign for a positive result.

“A child dies of starvation every 30 seconds and the Commission wanted to reduce European agriculture production by 21% during World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks. This was really counter-productive,” Mr Sarkozy said.

He added that issues which contributed to the “no” vote included Irish concerns over euthanasia, abortion and trade talks, bluntly adding: “Mandelson.”

Mr Sarkozy then made plain his personal dislike for Mr Mandelson’s approach to the Doha round of WTO talks, the latest in a series of personal public attacks.

“It would be highly unrealistic to keep wanting to negotiate a deal where we have not received anything on services, nothing on industry... and which would cut farm output by 20 percent while 800 million people are dying of hunger," he told journalists in the early hours of this morning.

"Frankly, there is only one person who thinks like that and it is Peter Mandelson and it is not France's position,” Mr Sarkozy added. “I say it in the clearest way, for us, on this basis, it is no.

“The question of the WTO was clearly a question that was brought up in the Irish debate,” he said.

Mr Mandelson’s photograph appeared on posters used by the No campaign in Ireland to raise fears that Irish farmers would suffer from cheap imports if he went ahead with a WTO deal. But the attacks were thought to have been neutralised when the main Irish farming union came out for a “yes” vote.

Brian Cowen, the Irish Prime Minister, was unable to give a detailed analysis of why the Irish voted against the treaty at last night’s dinner but fears for the farmers was not one of the key findings of an initial poll by the EU of “no” voters. Asked to give one reason for voting against it, 40 per cent blamed the fact that they did not understand the treaty, 20 per cent said it was to protect Irish identity, 17 per cent that they did not trust politicians, 10 per cent to keep Irish neutrality, 10 per cent to keep the country’s commissioner and 8 per cent to protect the tax system.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels will conclude their summit today by calling for action to curb rising food and fuel prices - if they can agree on a common approach. The 27-member EU is split over an approach to the global food crisis with Mr Sarkozy leading a group of protectionist countries and Britain backing Mr Mandelson’s free trade approach.

Mr Mandelson quickly laughed off the French President's attack. Asked if he was to blame for the Irish No vote, he told Sky News: “No, it’s not all my fault.”

He added: “I think we should be clear that President Sarkozy at his press conference was in fact asked to blame the President of the Commission, Mr Barroso, and he tactfully and diplomatically chose to blame me instead.

“Well, my shoulders are broad enough and my skin is thick enough to take this. I’m told that Mr Sarkozy has nothing against me personally.”

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