THE Prime Minister takes his Government's ''crusade against unemployment'' to Europe today when he flies to Sweden to garner support for a jobs action plan.

Mr Tony Blair will be whipping up support for the package of measures announced yesterday by Chancellor Gordon Brown designed to boost job creation across the EU, a goal they have signalled as being at the heart of the European debate rather than the single currency.

While senior sources denied the Government was playing down the importance of the euro, they stressed their determination to use the European framework to tackle unemployment.

Mr Blair will use his meeting with European leaders in Malmo and with Chancellor Kohl in Bonn tomorrow to emphasise the Government's determination to persuade European countries ''to work together towards more efficient Labour markets, more appropriate skills and education and the building of European infrastructure to ensure the efficiency of the single market so the levels of unemployment can be reduced''.

During exchanges in the Commons Mr Blair told MPs: ''I want to work with all our partners in Europe to make sure that we have an agenda for Europe that focuses on the single biggest problem in Europe and that is jobs.''

Earlier Mr Brown launched a new UK initiative to cut unemployment across Europe which he has already sent to all the finance Ministers in the EU.

Mr Brown confirmed he would raise it at the Economic and Finance Council meeting in Luxembourg on Monday but it was quite clear the Government had already won approval for the scheme from enough European colleagues to have it accepted.

The Chancellor underlined their commitment to increase the job creating potential of the EU's economies. ''Europe needs to create real and lasting jobs for all of its people. We must act now to complete the single market and ensure that for those countries that join, EMU works on the basis of sustainable convergence.''

The Chancellor's Action Plan has three main aims: to cut unemployment; to build up small and medium size enterprises; and encourage a more flexible single market for a single currency. Mr Brown gave every indication he intended to put Britain at the forefront of the European campaign for jobs, as well as making it a key theme of the British Presidency of next year's G8 nations.

Mr Brown who intends to liberalise markets, remove barriers to jobs and cut bureaucracy said: ''Britain is no longer prepared to sit on the sidelines when big issues are at stake. We are trying to make Europe more dynamic.

''Employability is the key to a cohesive society which offers opportunity to all its citizens. Better education and higher skills, combined with reduced burdens on business, are the way to guarantee the high and stable levels of growth and employment which are core goals of our economic policy.''

Mr Brown insisted that their initiatives for jobs would apply whether or not Britain joined the single European currency.

He said: ''I believe Britain is leading again on issues that really matter which is putting Britain back to work. It is not whether or not we are in or out of a single currency or on the left or the right. It is about tackling unemployment.''

Mr Blair, who has already accused the Tories of reducing the European debate to the single issue of sovereignty, made it clear in the Commons that he would never sign Britain up to the single currency if the ''criteria for monetary union was fiddled or fudged or botched in any way''. While he again more or less ruled out joining the first wave of monetary union he confirmed that if the criteria were not set properly then ''the answer is not to delay, the answer is not to proceed''.

Former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, the present favourite to win the first round in the Tory leadership contest, warned that a single currency ''is much, much less likely to succeed'' following the French election and the Bundesbank's decision to challenge the German government over gold reserves.

He said Britain now has two choices: to wait for the right economic conditions for the introduction of the euro, or to enter a weak currency.

Mr Brown's proposals were dismissed by the former Employment Secretary Gillian Shephard. ''If Gordon Brown wants to show Europe how to create jobs, then he should start today by scrapping his plans for a national minimum wage and by withdrawing his support for the job-destroying European Social Chapter.''

''It is the height of hypocrisy to preach labour market flexibility in Europe while planning costly new regulations here in Britain.''