BRUSSELS, May 4 : The European Community sought Monday to limit damage from a. leaked letter by one of its top lawyers that has raised fears for the future of the Maastricht treaty on closer European union, reports AP.

The letter was seized upon by Danish anti-Maastricht groups who said it could be a turning point In their campaign to defeat the unity accord In a May 18 referendum.

1n the letter, senior EC lawyer Donald Allen.reportedly endorses a legal paper that disputes the legality of changes

made to the treaty to allow Denmark to opt out of several key clauses.

Two British newspapers published extracts of tne private letter Sunday.

EC leaders granted Denmark exemptions to key provisions of the Maastricht treaty after the Danes rejected the original text last June.

The accord, negotiated In the Dutch town of Maastricht, would create a common foreign and security policy and a joint central bank and single currency by the decade's end.

EC leaders meeting in

Edlngburgh, Scotland, in December agreed to permit Denmark to opt out of its provisions on a common defense and foreign policy, single currency and European citizenship.

Anti-Maastricht campaigners in Denmark and Britain, the only countries that haven't ratified the treaty, claim the revisions are not legally binding and were drawn up to deceive voters.

According to London’s Sunday Times and the Independent on Sunday, Allen wrote that a group of anti-

Maastricht British lawyers were "undoubtedly right" in arguing the treaty changes are not legally enforceable.

Allen is one of eight senior members of the legal service of the EC's executive Commiss-

tn a statement Monday, Allen said his letter 'referred only to the professional reputation of one of the authors and technical quality of the presentation . . . not to its merits and conclusions."

He added, '‘i fully share the Commission's view, which 1 indeed never doubted, that the decision agreed in Edinburgh .