Michael Howard has promised the Conservatives will "make the case" for tax cuts under his leadership.

Writing in Sunday's News of the World, the shadow chancellor said: "The best way government can help people is to give them the opportunities to make the most of their potential. That's why we'll make the case for low taxes."

But Howard, who is set to be crowned unnopposed as Tory leader this week, fell short of detailing specific plans.

As shadow chancellor Howard has been careful not to commit to a programme of tax cuts ahead of the government's Budget and comprehensive spending review next year.

But despite calls from modernisers in the party to put public services before tax, the former home secretary said that as prime minister he would seek to lower the burden on voters.

"With low taxes, you don't just have a stronger economy; you have a stronger society," he claimed.

"When people pay less tax, they do more not just for themselves but for each other and for their communities.

"That's why we'll look for ways to give everyone more choice and control over the public services they pay for and rely on.

"And it's why we want to see a Britain where people have more freedom."

But leading moderniser John Bercow, who resigned from Iain Duncan Smith's Shadow Cabinet last year, said Howard should steer clear of the traditional Tory "obsession".

"The priority for Tories are public service policies which must come before any obsession with tax cuts," he told GMTV's Sunday programme.

He added that is might "be sensible" to rule out tax cuts in a first Conservative parliament.

"It might prove to be sensible.what we will offer to the public is stability in public finances, financial discipline, quality public services - but we might have to say to them 'sorry, we're a responsible Tory Party; there is no opportunity at the moment for sustainable tax cuts'," he said.

Former Conservative chancellor Lord Geoffrey Howe said on Sunday that Howard should include pro-European members of the party in his frontbench.

"I want him to acknowledge that the Conservative Party throughout its history has been a committed European, internationalist party, to acknowledge the legitimacy of people like myself and Ken Clarke who advocate that view of having a place in the Tory Party," he told GMTV.

Howard told the Sunday Telegrpah that he wanted to include Clarke in his "team", but that this was wider than the Shadow Cabinet.