Brussels  - Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen confirmed on Friday that Ireland will hold a second referendum on the EU reform, or Lisbon, treaty in 2009, having received assurances at the EU summit in Brussels that Ireland will retain its commissioner.

Ireland, which rejected the Lisbon treaty in a referendum in June, has been under pressure to hold a second vote, and has held that the country must retain its EU commissioner despite a plan to reduce the size of the Brussels commission, in exchange for a second referendum.

"On the basis of today's agreement ... I am prepared to go back to the Irish people next year," Cowen said. (dpa)