Taoiseach Enda Kenny has rejected German chancellor Angela Merkel’s call for changes to the Lisbon Treaty to deal with the current euro zone debt crisis.

Speaking in Galway today during his party’s campaigning with Fine Gael candidate Gay Mitchell, Mr Kenny said that the debt crisis should be dealt with under existing programmes and treaties.

Dr Merkel is intensifying her drive for changes to the treaty as part of a comprehensive deal to assert control over the expanding euro zone debt crisis. The chancellor rallied support for her initiative last night from French president Nicolas Sarkozy, giving fresh momentum to an emergent proposal which may require a referendum in Ireland.

Her alliance on this front with the French leader is likely to create political difficulty for Mr Kenny, who has made it clear in recent days that he does not want to reopen the pact.

“We will make proposals in a comprehensive package that will enable closer co-operation between euro zone countries that will include changes to treaties,” Dr Merkel told reporters before a meeting with Mr Sarkozy over dinner in Berlin last night.

She and Mr Sarkozy said they had reached agreement on a plan to recapitalise the weakest euro zone banks and they set their fellow- leaders a four-week deadline to forge ahead with a package of measures to escalate the campaign against the crisis.

Amid anxiety about mounting disruption in the banking sector, France and Germany want to unveil the plan before G20 leaders meet in Cannes early next month.

Dr Merkel has not specified what measures she wants to enshrine in the treaty. However, officials expect that any such move would be designed to make it easier for the European authorities to impose their will on the economic policy of countries which consistently breach EU budget rules.

Any substantive change would necessitate a referendum in Ireland, something Dublin views with apprehension given the rejection of the Nice and Lisbon treaties when they were first put to a vote.

Mr Kenny set out his opposition to treaty change within the last fortnight, saying that Europe should “get on with what we have now”.

Speaking this morning, Minister of State for Training and Skills Ciaran Cannon said any treaty changes “will occur with the will of the Irish people”.

This afternoon, European Union president Herman Van Rompuy delayed a planned meeting of EU government leaders by a week as the region seeks to stem the debt crisis. The meeting, which was set to discuss the economic crisis on October 17th, is now scheduled for October 23rd and will be preceded by a meeting of EU finance ministers, Mr Van Rompuy said today in a statement.

"This timing will allow to finalise our comprehensive strategy on the euro-area sovereign-debt crisis covering a number of interrelated issues," Mr van Rompuy said. "Significant progress has been accomplished in the implementation of the July package.

"Further elements are needed to address the situation in Greece, the bank recapitalisation and the enhanced efficiency of stabilisation tools. These elements are closely related to the outcome of the troika mission to Greece on the state of implementation of the program and to the Commission's plans for a framework for the bank recapitalisations, taking into account the work of the European Banking Authority."

While any move to change the treaty could take years to agree, Mr Sarkozy said Europe must “take decisions now” to gain the initiative in the crisis.

“We need to deliver a response that is sustainable and comprehensive. We have decided to provide this response by the end of the month because Europe must solve its problems by the G-20 summit,” he said.

The two leaders provided little clear information about their initiative. However, their united front comes in spite of clear differences over the use of Europe’s bailout fund to recapitalise euro zone banks.

The drive to boost the capital of the most vulnerable banks – which may cost euro zone governments as much as €200 billion – is a key element in the latest phase of the campaign to deal with the crisis.

Europe’s leaders are also discussing the possibility that private Greek bondholders might be asked to take a larger than anticipated “voluntary” loss on their investment agreed as part of that country’s second bailout.

The Merkel-Sarkozy meeting was their eighth since last year and was seen as a bid to give fresh impetus to the effort to tame the crisis.