European economic and monetary union should be postponed for a year if too many countries fail to meet the entry criteria, Lamberto Dini, Italy's foreign minister, said yesterday. Officials in Brussels said delay would not be compatible with the EU's Maastricht treaty, and portrayed Mr Dini's remarks as diplomatic manoeuvring ahead of the decision on which countries should join in January 1999.

Italy regards it as vital to be part of the first group to enter monetary union, along with France and Germany and is determined that it should not be excluded on grounds that could apply equally to some of its EU partners.

Earlier this year Mr Dini suggested that it would have been wiser to postpone the 1999 deadline to give countries more time to put their domestic economies in order.

Leading EU politicians joined the Commission in ruling out a postponement. "I don't think this reflects the view of the entire Italian government," Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister, said of Mr Dini's remarks. And Gunter Rexrodt, Germany's economics minister, said: "If we don't get the euro, that would have enormously negative political and economic consequences."

Mr Dini made his suggestion in an interview on German radio. But he later insisted that Italy would not ask for a delay in the introduction of the euro.