Britain's finance minister Mr Gordon Brown has signalled there will be no early push to join the euro despite his Labour Party's landslide election win, the Sunday Timesreported.
Quoting unnamed aides of Chancellor of the Exchequer Brown, the newspaper said a referendum on Britain joining the euro could be years away.
The Chancellor, who had been expected to soften his line on the euro once the election was over, appears more determined than ever to put the issue on ice, the report said. His aides say a euro referendum could be years away.
Labour Party policy on euro membership is that economic conditions should be right and the final decision should be taken in a referendum.
Treasury officials said euro entry was well down Mr wn's list of priorities, the Sunday Timesreported.
They added that the Treasury assessment of whether the economy met Brown's five tests for entry was not expected to be started soon.
The Observernewspaper reported that Prime Minister Tony Blair demoted his Foreign Secretary Mr Robin Cook because of his staunchly pro-Europe views which the prime minister feared could lead to a clash with Mr Brown over the European single currency.
Mr Cook, the party's main europhile, was replaced as foreign secretary by former Home Secretary Jack Straw, regarded as a mild euro-sceptic.