In the daily Brussels briefing later an EC spokesman said "member states would benefit from a country like Britain being in the euro".

BBC: No 10 denies shift in euro policy

"The Commission considers it premature ... that it would be a very large reduction, " said EC energy spokesman Giles Gantelet.

BBC: Opec agrees hefty cuts

"They only have to provide technical interface information to competitors to allow them to make products that are interoperable with Microsoft Windows, " said Jonathan Todd, the EC's antitrust spokesman.

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