Gordon Brown will use a meeting of financial ministers in Brussels today to call for a radical increase in competition and economic reform in order to help the "pro-European" cause in Britain.

The chancellor will say that there is a need for much more flexibility in European economies to compete with the US.

Meanwhile, the Telegraph reports that the government's long-awaited verdict on membership of the euro could be delayed until next month after it emerged that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are still arguing over the details of the statement.

Interviewed in today's FT, Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy says that the referendum decision will be a "fudge".