British PM to announce new date for speech

LONDON -- Prime Minister David Cameron's office was expected to announce Monday a date for his speech laying out plans to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the European Union and hold a referendum on the outcome.

Cameron's originally scheduled speech three days ago in Amsterdam, was postponed because of the hostage crisis at a gas plant in Algeria in which as many as six Britons may have died.

Extracts from the speech released by his office last week put 40 years of integration with the continent on the line by raising the specter of a British exit from the EU. "More of the same" won't be enough to guarantee the EU's future because of British dismay at a lack of consent to their alliance within the 27-nation bloc, Cameron planned to say.

"There are changes we want in that relationship, but we also need to see how the changes in the eurozone are affecting the European Union, how that affects this country," Foreign Secretary William Hague said. "When we have done those things, there is a strong case for fresh consent in this country, for the people of this country having their say."

Hague refused to be drawn on the details of what Cameron will say when asked about a Sunday Telegraph newspaper report that the prime minister would make a commitment to holding a referendum with the option of a British exit from the bloc.

"You will have to see the speech in its entirety," Hague told BBC television. "It's about the interests of this country, about making a success of membership of the European Union but also with democratic consent for that in its modern form, in the best form that we can bring about."

Cameron is responding to pressure from lawmakers in his Conservative Party for looser ties with the EU or an outright departure from the political union.