LISBON (Reuters) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown faces an uproar in Britain over his refusal to allow a referendum on Europe's new treaty, but analysts expect him to stick to his guns in the hope that the row will subside by the next election.

Right-wing British newspapers labelled Brown a "traitor" for agreeing to a European Union treaty on Friday that they say hands over extensive British powers to Brussels, while refusing to allow Britons a vote. The opposition Conservatives accuse Brown of breaking a promise made by his predecessor Tony Blair in 2005 to call a referendum on the now defunct EU constitution.

Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a London think-tank, believes Brown will hold firm in resisting calls for a referendum.

"It will be difficult for Gordon, but I think he can face down the popular press and I think he will. If he caved in, he would look incredibly weak," Grant told Reuters.

Richard Whitman, politics professor at the University of Bath, also believes that Brown will not give way on the referendum. "It would become a vote on Gordon Brown rather than on the reform treaty," he said.

The Conservatives, newly confident after Brown gave up any idea of an early general election this month when the Conservatives surged in the opinion polls, will continue to use the referendum as a stick to beat Brown with, Whitman said. The Conservatives are using the issue to portray Brown as a devious politician who is not to be trusted.

Brown, who took over from Blair in June, resists a plebiscite on the grounds that the treaty is less ambitious than the old constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters. He argues that safeguards won by Britain in the negotiations protect Britain's national interests. Opponents dispute this.

Brown will ask Parliament to ratify the treaty early next year, kicking off months of stormy debate. Although there will be some rebels in Brown's Labour Party, analysts say Brown has a strong enough majority in parliament to get the treaty through. Grant said he expected Britain to ratify the treaty by next April or May, leaving a year for the controversy to fade before a general election which many analysts now expect Brown to call in May 2009.

The Sun, Britain's biggest selling daily tabloid, promised on Friday to keep fighting for a referendum right up to the next election, accusing Brown of "an act of betrayal which will haunt the prime minister for the rest of his political days".

The Sun's endorsement was seen as key to Blair's three election wins and Brown will not dismiss its warning lightly. As the debate over the treaty has grown more strident, the Conservatives have used Second World War imagery, likening Brown's safeguards to the Maginot line, the anti-tank barrier that failed to stop Germany invading France in 1940. Brown too has wrapped himself in the flag, referring to "national interests" 19 times during a press conference at an EU summit in Lisbon on Thursday.

He now wants to close the chapter on what his foreign secretary, David Miliband, referred to as "navel gazing" by the EU, and to focus on issues he thinks have more resonance with voters such as jobs and the environment. He said EU leaders agreed at the summit to rule out further institutional change in the EU for years to come.

A poll in the Financial Times this week indicated three-quarters of Britons wanted a referendum on the treaty. More than 100,000 people have backed a campaign for a referendum by the Daily Telegraph. Aside from the question of whether Brown should hold a referendum, many Britons see the treaty as ceding too much sovereignty to Brussels.

But the government is banking on its belief that Europe does not rank high in British voters' concerns. In any case, analysts say that the risks to Brown from agreeing to a referendum could be worse. British voters could well reject the treaty, alienating other European leaders who feel they have bent over backwards to accommodate British concerns. That could lead to pressure for Eurosceptic Britain to leave the EU, Grant said.

"I believe if Britain is not able to ratify that treaty we couldn't stay in the EU," he said.