France defends its own interests, said French President Jacques Chirac, stressing the right of the French people to avoid increasing competition in Europe.

Still, a failure to adopt the European Union new constitution would isolate France from other EU countries, he said.

May 29 referendum is expected to show the French people attitude towards new regulations as 53% said they would vote against the treaty and 47% would say «Yes» to it, according to an April 12 poll by Institut BVA.

``If France didn’t adopt it, for a while it would cease to exist politically within Europe. You’ll have 24 countries voting yes and the black sheep blocking everything,’’ said Chirac.

There still remains the danger that Chirac would fail to be re-elected in 2007, some officials say. The country’s opposition criticised his policy that set the highest in five years unemployment rate of 10.1%.

The treaty will give EU chance to conntrast with «deregulated countries such as the US» as it is defending a «humanist» model of capitalism, Chirac said. He also added that would not step down if the referendum shows negative results.