year term _ priorities that Britain shares. Blair's government believes that not enough progress has been made on the Lisbon agenda _ the pledge EU leaders made in Portugal four years ago to overtake the United States as the world's leading economy by 2010. Britain's Europe minister Douglas Alexander on Friday called for greater economic reform of the European Union so it could compete in the future with China and India. «Europe needs to adapt to the changing balance of global economic activity and the rise of fast-growing economies, notably China and India which, respectively, aspire to be the global manufacturing and services hub of the 21st century global economy,» he said, in his first keynote speech since taking up his ministerial post this month. «The most successful economies will be those that can adapt quickly to change, promoting entrepreneurship and innovation,» he added. Alexander said Britain would push for more deregulation to make the 25-nation bloc more flexible and competitive, and try to strengthen economic cooperation between the European Union and the United States.
