THE Prime Minister is being advised to sign up to a controversial charter setting out a series of fundamental, economic, social, and human rights for Europe's citizens.

Lord Goldsmith, Mr Blair's personal representative on the drafting committee that painstakingly negotiated the 54-article text, made it clear in Brussels yesterday that he was satisfied with the draft charter.

''The final text is for governments to consider, but I believe today's text does show the key changes we secured last week, and I will warmly commend the draft to the Prime Minister.

''It is a good result for Great Britain. It protects national British law, in particular in critical areas, and provides consistency with the European Convention on Human Rights,'' he said.

Over the past nine months, he has succeeded in heading off attempts by France, Germany, and others to make the text legally binding and enforceable by the courts.

When EU leaders come to approve the charter in Nice shortly before Christmas, after first examining it in Biarritz next week, they are certain to agree that it should be a political declaration giving a higher visibility in one document to the various existing rights which citizens can expect the EU to uphold.

One EU diplomat explained: ''This is about what Brussels can and can't do.It is addressed to the European institutions.

''Member states are constrained by the European Convention on Human Rights and national constitutions.

''Up till now, Brussels has had no statement on where it is restricted.''

Coincidentally, agreement on the draft came on the same day as the entry into force in the UK of the Human Rights Act, which incorporates the 50-year old European human rights convention into Scottish and English law.

Conservatives and other critics have warned that the charter is the first step on the road to a European constitution and will force unfamiliar continental constraints and practices on the British way of life.