The European Commission and France have discussed plans to allow some EU countries to harmonise their corporate tax bases.

The Commissioner responsible for taxation, Mr Frits Bolkestein, said he had held bilateral talks with the French Finance Minister, Mr Françis Mer, about using EU rules on enhanced co-operation to allow some countries to harmonise their tax systems.

"If some member-states insist on unanimity on all matters pertaining to taxes, we have to find some way of making progress, at least in some areas, through reinforced co-operation," Mr Bolkestein said.

He was speaking during a joint press conference with the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, following a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels.

Mr McCreevy, who chaired the meeting, said that the Republic's opposition to introducing majority voting on any tax issue had not changed.

Mr Bolkestein urged finance ministers to stand firm in a dispute with Switzerland over the signing of an agreement to combat tax evasion.

Last year, Switzerland and the EU agreed a draft tax treaty that would introduce a tax on EU savings hidden in Switzerland without affecting the country's banking secrecy.

Switzerland is refusing to sign the deal unless it gets concessions on other issues, such as the Schengen agreement on border controls, which it says could damage banking secrecy.

"The agreement with the Swiss government has been concluded and there are no loose ends. I don't see any reason why the Swiss government should be anxious that, by some other route, the tradition of bank secrecy should be eroded," Mr McCreevy said.

He also said that the EU finance ministers would discuss who should succeed Mr Horst Köhler as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) when they meet in Punchestown, Co Kildare early next month.

He said there was no connection between the IMF appointment, which is traditionally held by a European, and the choice of a successor to Mr Eugenio Domingo Solans on the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB).

Mr Michael Tutty, the Irish vice-president of the European Investment Bank, is one of three candidates for the ECB post, which becomes vacant on May 31st.

The Republic and Belgium are among four euro-zone member-states that have not yet been represented on the executive board. A number of large states are backing the Spanish candidate, Mr José Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo, in the hope of ending the system of rotation among member-states.

EU finance ministers will choose Mr Solans's successor when they meet in Brussels later this month on the margins of an EU summit.