Nearly two-thirds of Germans would prefer to keep the deutschmark rather than adopting euro notes and coins in 2002, according to a poll.

In one of their bluntest rejections of the single currency yet, 63 per cent of Germans polled by the Forsa institute said they could do without the new currency, while just 34 per cent welcomed it.

Forsa said the euro-sceptism was spread equally among supporters of the country's two main political parties, the left-leaning Social Democrats and the right-leaning Christian Democrats. Only supporters of the ecologist Greens and the pro-market Free Democrats were enthusiastic advocates, it said.

Meanwhile, over two-thirds of Britons remain opposed to joining the euro, a poll published yesterday showed just as two anti-euro groups launched a campaign to keep Britain out of Europe's single currency. The poll, carried out by ICM for the Business for Sterling and the New Europe campaigns, showed 69 per cent of Britons reject euro membership.