London will also use its veto to ensure it retains control of running its own economy in a draft blueprint to be presented to an EU summit this week, Straw is due to say at a speech in London, according to an advance copy of the text.

"We've heard that the text is a blueprint for tyranny, that it even marks the end of 1,000 years of British history," he is expected to tell a seminar on the Convention on the Future of Europe.

This is not true, along with another allegation that the new EU constitution will mark a "decisive step towards a federal Europe," Straw is due to say.

The draft of EU's first constitution is to be formally presented at a bloc summit later this week in Salonika, Greece and an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) of EU member states will decide on the document later this year.

"First (there is) the myth that the UK is about to lose its sovereign right to use its own foreign and defence policies. We won't. That's a guarantee," he says. "Even if such proposals gained traction in the IGC, we would oppose them and we have a veto."

Another false claim was that Britain would lose the power to run its own economy. "We won't," he repeated, adding that Britain opposes any attempt to harmonize taxes. "We have a unanimity lock on any such proposals at the IGC."

"Fourth (there is) the myth that, overall, this treaty marks a decisive step towards a federal Europe. It doesn't. We are making progress towards our kind of Europe: a Europe of nations, not a superstate," says Straw.

The draft EU constitution was hammered out by a convention chaired by former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing.

The IGC will finalize the constitution, designed for after the EU expands from 15 to 25 members next year, at the IGC starting in October.

"The convention is the basis and the starting point for the IGC, but the IGC is the body intergovernmentally which is going to decide," Straw said Monday.

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