Buckingham Palace has announced that its shops will not accept the new euro currency when the notes and coins are introduced in 12 of Britain's fellow EU member nations on Tuesday.

Britain, where most people are eurosceptic according to opinion polls, is not among the countries adopting the new common currency, although some major retail chains here have announced that they will accept the euro at the tills.

"It's purely a business decision," a palace spokesman said Sunday.

"Retail outlets at official residences have never accepted other currencies."

The palace stressed that "this is not an anti-European decision".

Major London shops such as Harrods and Selfridges, as well as the Marks and Spencer, WH Smith and Boots retail chains have said they will accept the euro currency after it is introduced elsewhere in Europe on January 1.

Electronics giant Dixons will do the same, despite the fact that its president, Stanley Kalms, is a member of the anti-euro Business for Sterling group.