China calls for currency debate

China has asked to debate proposals for a new global reserve currency at next week's Group of Eight summit in Italy and the issue could be referred to briefly in the summit statement, G8 sources said yesterday.

One G8 source, who was involved with the process, said China made the request during preparatory talks about a joint statement to be issued on the second day of the summit by the G8 plus the G5 (Brazil, India, China, Mexico and South Africa) and also Egypt.

This forum, the so-called "G14", meets on July 9 to discuss the financial crisis, trade and climate change and for the first time a G8 summit will also produce a joint G14 statement.

A European source said China had raised the subject of a debate and that it might be mentioned during the meeting. (This story is without a dateline to protect the identities of the sources).

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