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German and French finance ministers want to see the UK's right to block any change in European tax laws removed.

It has provoked outrage in the British press, with the mass-circulation tabloid Sun in particular launching bitter attacks on German Finance Minster Oskar Lafontaine for his proposals.

Gordon Brown, the UK chancellor, is strongly opposed to plans to harmonise tax rates across the European Union (EU).

Lafontaine: The proponent of tax hamonisation

He believes the move could lead to higher costs for UK businesses and thousands of job losses.

However Mr Lafontaine has put himself on a direct collision course with Mr Brown by calling for rules which allow individual nations to veto EU proposals to be scrapped.

Mr Lafontaine said: "My government has no official position on this, but it is my personal view that we eventually must go to qualified majority voting on the sensitive issue of taxes."

Brown: Ready to use veto

If the controversial move was adopted it would lead to a fundamental change in the way the EU is run.

Mr Lafontaine immediately won the support of French Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn who was also attending the meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Tuesday.

Mr Strauss Kahn said he favoured majority voting to root out tax distortions that damage competition.

The BBC's David Shukman: UK will oppose any move to stifle business flexibility

However Mr Brown immediately fired back by dismissing the idea.

"Everybody knows that tax proposals require unanimity, and a change to that requires a treaty change ... and that is simply not going to happen," he said.

Brown: Hopes for support from Spain

"You have a single currency in the United States but they have different income, corporate and sales taxes right across the US. So there is no reason why the single currency require the same tax rates for businesses to be able to work."

Robin Oakley: "It's a direction Britain doesn't want to go"

His views were later echoed by European Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan who said on Wednesday the plan had no chance of success.

"It's just not going to happen because if you talk to the Dutch, or the Danes, or the Swedes, or the Austrians, they are simply not going to agree to this," he told BBC Radio.

Lamont: This probably isn't a left-wing plot

"Mr Lafontaine and Mr Strauss-Kahn can huff and puff until the cows come home. The history of Europe is littered with hares that have been run and then run into the ground and this is going to be one of them."

"This has not even been discussed by the European Commission and it is unconceivable that progress can be made on this during the German presidency - they haven't the power to do it and they haven't the time to do it," he said.

Germany's six-month presidency of the EU starts on January next year.

Blair to join euro tax battle

Prime Minister Tony Blair also looks set to join the row when he attends an Anglo-French summit on the future of Europe in St Malo on Thursday.

Although tax harmonisation is not officially on the agenda, Mr Blair is expected to tell the French government that Britain would veto calls for a European-wide tax structure.

Conservative attack

However Michael Howard, the shadow foreign secretary accused Mr Blair of "going with the flow" in the march towards a European superstate.

"We are now facing pressure on all fronts to move towards the goal which the German foreign minister has declared as his objective - a single European state.

"What we are now faced with are proposals for one currency, one tax policy, one defence policy, one justice system.

"This is a great march towards a single European state which would be bad for Britain and bad for Europe." he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.