Tony Blair has urged two of Europe's most powerful leaders to speed up reform of the EU.

The prime minister warned the EU must tackle problems such as red tape and productivity at his meeting with Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder in Berlin on Wednesday.

Blair said it was vital that Europe changed to ensure "social solidarity".

"If we can come to certain basic agreements about that it would be of enormous assistance, not just for our own countries but also for Europe," said Blair.

"An enlarged Europe is going to need to deal with these issues and deal with them in an intelligent way that allows us to make provision for the future."

Officials from the three governments have been keen to play down suggestions that the leaders are seeking to establish a new alliance that could dominate the EU.

The event has a packed agenda and the prime minister took key members of his ministerial team to boost the negotiations, including trade secretary Patricia Hewitt, pensions secretary Andrew Smith, health secretary John Reid, foreign secretary Jack Straw and Treasury minister Dawn Primarolo.

Key themes were employment, innovation and entrepreneurship.

"There are issues to do with regulations, particularly for small business, that we need to look at," Blair told journalists.

Reform

Downing Street confirmed on Monday that the prime minister is urging other leaders to make progress on cutting regulations from Brussels, strengthening labour markets and boosting productivity.

"It's primarily about economic reform. The prime minister believes that it is important that we make progress," said the official spokesman.

Driving the UK agenda is chancellor Gordon Brown who wants to see major changes in Europe. He does not see Britain entering the euro until reforms to the growth and stability pact are in place.

Brown has also renewed his lobbying for Third World debt and greater access to the Single Market to non-EU countries.

As a result, Blair is expected to try and re-start stalled world trade talks.

Opening up

He will urge France to back Common Agricultural Policy reforms and open the EU to more outside produce.

British sources say the old-style Franco-German model will no longer work in a Europe of 25.

Ahead of the meeting Europe's "Big Three" were given a gentle prod forward by a group of smaller EU nations.

Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar has mustered signatures from his Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Polish and Estonian counterparts to put their names to calls for economic reforms.

The three-page document is seen largely as a reminder that other countries have a say in building Europe too.

Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi expressed concern that the "big three" were hijacking the EU’s agenda.

"Europe doesn’t need any directorate, it’s just a big mess," he said on Tuesday.

"This is my opinion, and it is shared by all the other European countries, with the exception of the three countries in question."

Foreign secretary Jack Straw rejected Berluconi's fears.

"We have no proposals to establish a directoire or small executive. It would be unconstitutional for us to do so and counterproductive," he said.

"We cannot seek to impose our will on the rest of Europe but if we can reach a common stand it is more likely that it will be shared across Europe."

Constitution

The Berlin talks were also set to cover the issues that have stalled negotiations over the EU constitution.

Number 10 revealed that Blair has been in a round of negotiations with other leaders ahead of the summit.

"We have to work with other allies such as Spain, Italy and Poland - and small countries as well. We have to see how much progress can be made given the positions of other countries," said the official spokesman.

Downing Street also portrayed the meeting as being part of the wider EU picture.

"France, Germany and Portugal had a meeting last week and nobody commented. There will be different formations at different times," said the spokesman.