Britain maintained its stance yesterday and said it must be a full member of a proposed "Euro-X" club of states planning the European single currency. "We should be involved in all those discussions," the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair's official spokesman told reporters.
The club is designed to co-ordinate economic policy once monetary union gets underway in 1999.
But, countries such as Britain, who do not intend to join EMU straight away, worry that crucial economic decisions will be taken at Euro-X meetings, and not at the usual Ecofin meetings.
Britain stepped up efforts late on Tuesday to put its case to European leaders when Mr Blair spoke by telephone to Swedish Prime Minister Mr Goran Persson and to Italian Prime Minister Mr Romano Prodi.
The spokesman said Mr Blair expected to talk to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to underline Britain's case before going to tomorrow's EU summit in Luxembourg.
Mr Blair's spokesman said Britain was not happy with the compromise idea floated on Tuesday by German Finance Minister Mr Theo Waigel that would give EMU "outsiders" observer status at the proposed Euro-X club.
"We would be watching other people take decisions that affect us," the spokesman said.
He repeated Britain's view that it should be outside the group only in exceptional cases.
