Swedish voters delivered a decisive "No" to the EU's single currency on Sunday, defying expectations of a late surge of sympathy votes for the pro-euro government after the murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.

The "No" side won 56 percent of votes and the "Yes" side 42 percent -- a stinging defeat for Prime Minister Goran Persson and euro backers in the main political parties and big business.

"In the long term we will have worse opportunities than we would otherwise have had," Social Democrat leader Persson said after the referendum which had a high turnout 81 percent.

Echoing Persson's warnings Sweden would lose influence in the European Union by rejecting the world's second most-traded currency, European Commission chief Romano Prodi told Swedish television the country would "certainly" lose some clout.

Finland said Sweden's "No" was a warning to the 12 nations belonging to the euro to get their house in order, especially those with big budget deficits, like France and Germany.

Ahead in polls since April, the "No" side warned the euro would raise prices and cut funds for the cradle-to-grave welfare system -- a big issue in remote areas and for women voters.

"The people have put their foot down and made it clear that democracy comes from below, not from above," said Ulla Hoffman, leader of the Left Party which fought a grassroots campaign against the euro with the Greens and government dissidents.

CELEBRATIONS MUTE

The wave of sympathy votes for the "Yes" side in which Lindh had been a fervent campaigner either did not materialize or was not big enough to upset the long-forecast result.

Her murder by a lone knifeman prompted bitter memories of the unsolved assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. Lindh, 46, had been tipped as a future prime minister.

"She was a really good human being, but her death was no reason to change my mind. I think most people had really decided a month or more ago," said 24-year-old student Philip. "I just think in the longer run the euro would make the economy worse."

Few celebrated in Stockholm where 50,000 people rallied on Friday in tribute to Lindh, in the biggest demonstration here since the Vietnam war. Red roses, poems and children's drawings piled up at the store where she was stabbed.

In sharp contrast to the overwhelming "Yes" to EU membership in a referendum in Estonia on Sunday, Sweden's decision was a setback for the EU's most ambitious economic project, already rejected by Danish voters in 2000.

The EU's third euro outsider, Britain, has yet to put membership to a vote. EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solves said Sweden's decision could affect Britain and Denmark.

Financial markets had widely expected a rejection of the euro, which Sweden would have adopted in 2006 at the earliest.

The crown, which would have jumped on a "Yes" anticipating a peg to the euro at a higher rate, weakened slightly against the euro in thin Sunday trade. Economist John Madsen at Nykredit expected it to fall 3-4 percent against the euro.

The chairman of Sweden's flagship telecommunications giant Ericsson, Michael Treschow, said the "big losers will be companies." But AMF fund manager Tor Marthin said the consequences would "not be dramatic for the Swedish economy."

The Nordic country of nine million people has a lower jobless rate and higher growth than the euro zone and a budget surplus, while Germany and France struggle with deficits.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said it was "good the door is not closed and that the possibility of a later Swedish euro entry remains," though Persson rules it out before 2013.

Although he called it "the biggest defeat ever for a Swedish prime minister," Persson made clear he would not resign. "I will still be prime minister tomorrow," he told Reuters.

(China Daily September 15, 2003)