The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Gordon Brown, yesterday dismissed reports that ministers are not at one over the single currency as "works of fiction". Mr Brown insisted that the government's position on the issue, which was spelled out before the general election, had not changed.
An announcement on the government's attitude towards the euro would be made "at the appropriate time" before the turn of the year, in Britain's national interests.
The chancellor reaffirmed that if a decision was taken to go in there would be a referendum.
Recent reports have suggested that ministers are poised to announce they want sterling to enter economic and monetary union soon after the 1999 launch.
One newspaper yesterday suggested the Treasury was trying to bounce the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, into a decision which could lead to the early death of the pound.
But Mr Brown insisted: "The government's position has not changed and any attempt to make a scene like the previous government, where there were splits all the time between individual members of the cabinet, is quite wrong."
The government yesterday came under mounting pressure from European colleagues to sign up to the euro after evidence emerged it would meet all the economic criteria in time.
But Mr Brown has repeatedly stuck to the official line that British membership in 1999 would be very unlikely because of formidable obstacles. "There is no question of timidity or weakness," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
"This is us arguing the case all the time, as I did yesterday in Europe, for the British interest. And the British interest, of course, is looking at the effect on our economy - on jobs and investment - and the effect that will have to be measured in or out of EMU."
The test would be the consequences for jobs, investment and Britain's financial services industry, as well as the risk of potential shocks in Europe.
The Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, Mr Malcolm Bruce, said he would call on the chancellor to make a statement on the government's position on EMU when Parliament returns later this month.
"If the cabinet is as united as Gordon Brown claims, then let us hear their decision on EMU instead of keeping British businesses in the dark," he said.
"The government's indecision on the single currency is already costing Britain dear, in higher long-term interest rates and more volatile exchange rates," he added.