Leading candidates for European Union membership are likely to wait until 2008 to adopt the euro, according to a Reuters survey.
This week's survey of 44 analysts found the chances of euro entry by January 2007 had for most countries slipped from the previous August survey towards 50 per cent.
For January 2008 - nearly four years after the most likely date for EU expansion - probabilities jumped by five to 10 per cent to between 70 and 80 per cent for the candidates, many of them ex-Communist countries in Eastern Europe.
Countries need time for structural reforms to make their economies competitive and robust enough to join Europe's monetary union where they would share interest rates with mature economies such as Germany, analysts said.
The European Central Bank is also keen to see "real" convergence, where faster growth in applicant countries boosts living standards, as opposed to just "nominal" convergence, where wealth disparities remain with established EU members.