Downing Street strategists are moving towards a 2004 euro poll date in order to secure British membership of the single currency in this parliament, according to press reports.

Peter Mandelson has called on Gordon Brown to base his five tests on UK euro entry on the economic picture two years after a referendum on the single currency.

Writing in the Times, the former cabinet minister urges the chancellor to be more upbeat about the benefits of the single currency and he argues that convergence between sterling and the euro would follow a government announcement of the UK's intention to join the eurozone.

The europhile Hartlepool MP, who is still close to Number 10, also backs delaying a euro poll until 2004.

Delay is also backed by Tony Blair reports the Independent.

The prime minister, according to an unnamed minister, wants to "play it long" by prolonging a planned four month euro campaign to between six months to a year after assessment.

In a development that will strengthen the chancellor's euro caution, a MORI poll of Britain's bosses shows that 50 per cent are opposed to participation in the single currency.

Boardroom backing has fallen from a 70 per cent majority for the euro in 1997 to 42 per cent, finds the survey.