Top financial officials of the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized countries on Saturday called for greater stability in exchange rates.
  
"Excess volatility and disorderly movements in exchange rates are undesirable for economic growth," the officials said in a statement issued at the end of a two-day meeting in Boca Raton, Florida.
  
The move was seen as an effort to check the fall in the US dollar, which was reportedly triggered by a G7 statement five months ago that called for more flexibility of exchange rates.
  
While calling for stability in currency rates, finance ministers from G7 countries -- the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy -- agreed with the US call for "flexibility."
  
Proclaiming the global economic recovery has strengthened significantly in recent months, they urged "major countries or economic areas that lack that flexibility" to have more flexibility in exchange rates.
  
On the global economy, the ministers said the outlook had improved considerably since the meeting in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. "The global economic recovery has strengthened considerably since our meeting in Dubai and risks have diminished," the statement said.
  
They supported continued cooperative efforts to promote sustained global growth and efforts to cut the foreign debt burdens of Iraq and Afghanistan, and urged Argentina to work with the International Monetary Fund and "engage constructively" with its creditors.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2004)