Blair and Brown insist they agree

The meetings, expected to be spread over the next three days, give ministers their first proper chance to put their view to the two men seen to control the referendum decision.

Each minister goes to their meeting fresh from receiving 2,000-odd pages of Treasury background studies looking into the implications of the UK replacing the pound with the euro.

The face-to-face talks will conclude ahead of Thursday's cabinet meeting, which the euro is expected to dominate.

BBC political editor Andrew Marr says pro-euro ministers, who hold a majority in the cabinet, are using the meetings to further their campaign.

The prime minister has marched members of the cabinet in one-by-one to beat up the chancellor Iain Duncan Smith Conservative leader EU constitution talks

They want a bill allowing for a referendum announced in the next Queen's Speech.

Even if there is not going to be a referendum now, such legislation would give a sign there could be one in the not-too-distant future, our correspondent says.

As the meetings on the currency get under way there is a separate growing campaign for a referendum to also be called on a proposed future European constitution.

With Tony Blair meeting Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who chairs the Convention on the Future of Europe, on Monday, the government is rejecting the vote calls.

'Publish dossier now'

But Downing Street said it was the euro talks which had occupied most of his time on Monday.

The chancellor has apparently convinced the prime minister his five economic tests have not yet been met.

That has left the question of whether a euro referendum can be squeezed in ahead of the next election - prompting the pro-euro campaigning.

Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said Mr Blair did not want a full cabinet discussion on the euro until ministers had been given the chance to "beat up the chancellor in private".

In a speech on Monday, Mr Duncan Smith said: "I have a simple message for the prime minister and the chancellor - let us all see the available evidence now.

"That way, we can weigh all the facts up for ourselves and come to our conclusion."

Nobody has ruled out a referendum as an act of dogma in this parliament Gordon Brown Chancellor

The new Treasury dossiers include assessment of the impact the euro might have on the housing and jobs markets.

On Sunday, Mr Brown insisted he and Mr Blair were at one on the issue and had a "tranquil" relationship.

"Nobody has ruled out a referendum as an act of dogma in this parliament," Mr Brown told BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme.

"Economics and not dogma will be the final test."

Guarantee

He added that the government had been "committed to the principle of the single currency" since 1997.

The chancellor said his five economic tests were the UK's "insurance policy" against economic errors of the past. "It is a guarantee that we can ensure jobs, investment and the future profitability of industry and the prosperity of the country," he said.

European Commissioner and former Tory cabinet minister Chris Patten told BBC Radio 4's World this Weekend it was about time there was a "serious political debate" about Britain's relationship with the EU.

Outgoing general secretary of the TUC, John Monks, said people had a right to know what the government was basing its euro decision.

"We want to know what the basis of these decisions are going to be and have a chance to have an input, so I think it is time to open it out," he said.

The cabinet is due to reach its verdict on 5 or 6 June.