Mr Oskar Lafontaine, the German Finance Minister, yesterday used a whistle-stop tour through Rome and London to try to forge a common economic policy for the European Union ahead of the launch of the single currency, the euro, in January.

As finance ministers from the European Union's centre-left governments prepared to meet this weekend, Mr Lafontaine sought to get broad agreement on ways to boost growth and fight unemployment, claiming this was "the central objective of the new economic policy among European states".