The FT reports that Britain and Germany could follow France's lead and issue borrowing bonds of up to 50-years.

The chancellor is set to be considering the idea to lock in low interest rates and take advantage of the demand from investors for security.

Gordon Brown is set to unveil the idea as part of next week's Budget.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Guardian  the shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin predicts Brown will use the budget as a "Gordon to the rescue" event.

Letwin says the chancellor will trump the Tories' £4bn package of tax cuts to save Tony Blair's faltering election campaign.

However, he argues Brown's tactic of massaging the public accounts to allow scope for tax cuts of his own  is "past its sell-by date" and will no longer work with sceptical voters.