LONDON, March 23: Europe needs to raise its game on economic reform to compete with the growing technological prowess of economies such as China and India, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday.

"The best contribution pro-Europeans can make to the cause of Europe is by ensuring that in Europe we face up to, rather than duck, the difficult decisions about economic reform," Mr Blair told an audience of investment bankers in central London.

Britain should resist the kind of inflexibility being added into European Union guidelines such as the working time directive, he added. "It is important that we use every bit of influence we have to push Europe along the path to economic reform," Mr Blair said.

The European Union has set a target of making the bloc the world's "most dynamic economy" by 2010 - the so-called "Lisbon strategy". The goal was set to be the focus of the spring summit of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday.

Mr Blair said Britain faced growing competition from overseas economies such as India and China, where he had noted on past visits an entrepreneurial spirit "that stood in sharp contrast with what we see in parts of Europe." "Globalization presents us with a choice: embrace it and make it work for us, or try to thwart it," he said. -AFP