Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, has said the UK would benefit from joining the euro, despite warnings from members of Berlin's new coalition government that the eurozone's one-size-fits-all monetary policy could hurt the sluggish German economy.

"I don't ask the British citizens here to approve what I say," Mr Trichet said in Berlin on Saturday, with reference to the British government's decision not to join the eurozone when it was formed in 1999. "But if the UK was in the euro, it would be even better off."