Ireland’s government must devise a solution “as soon as possible” to the impasse ­created by the country’s rejection last week of the Lisbon treaty, according to Denmark’s prime minister.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Wednesday said that, while “deeply respecting” the Irish No vote, the European Union needed Dublin’s ratification. Renegotiation of the reform treaty was not a realistic option, nor should there be any “cherry picking” of the text, he told the Financial Times.