BRITAIN will be propelled into the single currency because it will not be able to afford to remain outside, the EU Vice President for External Relations, Sir Leon Brittan, said yesterday.

Speaking at a lunch in Dublin, the former British chief secretary to the Treasury also indicated that a new treaty to enlarge the EU was not likely to be ready until at the earliest mid 1997.

Sir Leon said he had always argued that it was in Britain's interest to sign up for EMU. "Economic and Monetary Union is going to happen. And I believe that when the perception occurs, then business and industry will begin to focus more strongly on this question.

"They will come to the view that it's not a theoretical question about whether or not it's a good idea, but a question of, if it is being created by Britain's major trading partners, is this something that we can, or cannot, afford to stay out of," he said.

It would be a mistake to try to "press, bully or cajole" Britain into signing up for EMU: "But I believe that the facts of life will push Britain - I don't know over what time scale - to joining. When that happens I think it will be good for Britain, good for Europe, and, of course, it will be good for Ireland as well."

Sir Leon said he did not expect a draft of a new EU treaty to be ready within Ireland's current presidency.

"I very much hope that priority will be given to changes in the institutions that are necessary in order to achieve enlargement. In other words, countries in central and eastern Europe want to join the Union, we want them to join us, and we have to change the way we operate in order to be able to enlarge without coming to a grinding halt," he said.