LAEKEN, Dec 15: European Union leaders gathering at an EU summit in Laeken were treated to a taste of the new single European currency on Saturday when they were handed starter packs containing the shiny new coins.

The currency was made available to Belgians for the first time on Saturday, a day after the starter kits were aired in France, the Netherlands and Ireland.

They’re citizens like anyone else, said a spokeman for the EU rotating presidency — held by Belgium until the end of the year — in a reference to the EU heads of state.

Leaders of the bloc’s 15 member states were given the trial packs as they sat down for a second and final day of talks here aimed at paving the way for institutional reforms ahead of EU expansion in 2004.

The starter kits are designed to allow people to get to know the currency before it rolls out across the 12-nation eurozone on January 1.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair — whose country is the most high-profile omission from the single currency — grinned as his European colleagues surveyed the new coins.

British officials here have towed the official government line, that entry into the eurozone is a long term goal, but only when the economic conditions favour Britain doing so.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the launch of the common currency was bound to have an effect on Britons, amid signs London is increasingly warming to the euro.—AFP