'Embrace EU policy or become an irrelevance'.

BRITAIN must take a lead in developing a strong European foreign policy if it is to retain its influence around the world, Foreign Secretary David Miliband warned yesterday.

The UK would lose out internationally if it tried to oppose the EU foreign policy on the grounds of "hubris, nostalgia or xenophobia", Mr Miliband said.

Speaking at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the MP for South Shields attacked the Conservative opposition to the Lisbon Treaty - which creates an EU foreign minister and diplomatic service - as a "deception".

"It is very strongly in the British national interest for the European Union to develop a strong foreign policy," he said.

"To be frightened of European foreign policy is blinkered, fatalistic and wrong. Britain should embrace it, shape it and lead European foreign policy."

Mr Miliband warned that without an effective European foreign policy Britain and the EU would increasingly become an irrelevance in a world dominated by Washington and Beijing.

"The choice for Europe is simple - get our act together and make the European Union a leader on the world stage or become spectators in a G2 world shaped by the United States and China," he said.

"We can lead a strong European foreign policy or, lost in hubris nostalgia or xenophobia, watch our influence in the world wane."

Mr Miliband also warned that an unsuccessful attempt by a Conservative government to renegotiate elements of the EU in the wake of ratification of the Lisbon Treaty could simply lead to demands for Britain to leave Europe altogether.