Tony Blair will today signal his continued determination to develop a "pro-European consensus" in Britain.

The prime minister will reveal that he now chairs a European Strategy Committee, tasked with coordinating across Whitehall the reforms needed to ensure Britain passes the Treasury's five economic tests for euro membership.

The FT reports that the move indicates a growing determination in Number 10 to confront the euroscepticism of the British press.

"This is the engine that will make sure all the different departments in Whitehall are working towards the same goals on both the euro and the EU," one anonymous minister told the paper.

Meanwhile, Romano Prodi, the president of the European Commission, has warned that Britain could not remain a key player in the EU if it refused to join the single currency.

Speaking in Washington on the eve of an EU-US summit, Prodi said: "I do hope that the decision will come soon because the UK cannot be half in and half out of this so important chapter in European policy. Out of the euro, you miss an opportunity of influence."