Britain said today it would issue its long-awaited verdict on the case for joining the European single currency on June 9th.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet will reach a final decision at a meeting on June 5th or 6th after a debate that goes beyond a narrow economic assessment of euro entry.
Mr Blair, who sees the euro as part of Britain's destiny, has pledged to offer Britons a referendum if Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown says the economic conditions are right.
However, the finance minister is widely expected to declare that the five tests he set back in 1997 have "not yet" been met.
"The announcement on the euro will be made in the House of Commons on Monday the ninth of June," Mr Blair's spokesman told reporters.
"There will be a special cabinet on either the 5th or the 6th of June for a final discussion of both the euro but also including the wider European strategy of the government," the spokesman said.
Aides say Mr Blair is not prepared to allow the more cautious Mr Brown to bury euro entry for years and wants to keep the possibility open of a euro referendum before the next election, due by 2006.
Britain is one of only three out of 15 European Union members not to have joined the currency club. Mr Blair has refused to commit himself either way during six years in power.