The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Gordon Brown, yesterday denied that he opposed holding a referendum on joining the euro as a matter of principle.
But in a television interview he repeatedly asserted that his economic assessment about joining Europe's single currency was the basis on which the crucial decision will be made.
Mr Brown will tell parliament on June 9th whether he believes the time is right for Britain to join the currency group. He is widely expected to say the five tests that he set back in 1997, centred on economic convergence with the European Union, have "not yet" been met. However, the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, is pressing for keeping the door open on a referendum before the next election, due by 2006.
"The five tests effectively define the national economic interest for our country," Mr Brown told the BBC yesterday.
Mr Brown and Mr Blair took the unprecedented step last Friday of publicly denying any rift over joining Europe's single currency. But their political opponents said this only showed how deep the split was. Government sources have long portrayed Mr Blair as far keener than the Chancellor to join the currency.
The Prime Minister fears a loss of influence in the European Union if he rules out euro entry for several years. Mr Brown does not want to risk Britain's economy, which is set to grow twice as fast as the eurozone's this year, by rushing in prematurely.
Meanwhile the Cabinet minister responsible for negotiating a new European constitution said there was no prospect of the government giving in to demands for a referendum on the issue. The Welsh Secretary, Mr Peter Hain, accused those demanding a poll of feeding "baloney" and "lies" to the British public in the hope of stirring up concern about the plans being drawn up by the Convention on the Future of Europe.
He said he was "confident" that the result of negotiations in the EU Inter-Governmental Conference over the next year would be a Constitution which protected British national interests.
European Commissioner Mr Chris Patten warned yesterday that further prevarication on Europe risked permanently reducing Britain to the "status of whingers in the back row".
"I think it's all about what sort of people we want to be, whether we are prepared once and for all to accept some pooling of sovereignty in the European Union, in the same way that we have accepted it - arguably to a greater extent - in NATO without endlessly going through a nervous breakdown. Sooner or later we have got to end this nervous breakdown about our membership of the EU if we are to punch our weight, if we are to actually protect and enhance Britain's national interest," he said. - (PA)