French Presidency: G8 Unlikely To Discuss Forex

PARIS (Dow Jones)--The heads of the Group of the Eight leading nations are unlikely to discuss foreign exchange issues during their meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, from Wednesday, an official from the French presidency said Tuesday.Speaking at a briefing ahead of the meeting, the official said G8 summits of heads of states and government "generally don't discuss foreign exchange matters."Several countries are increasingly worried about the weakness of the U.S. currency against others, notably in Europe, as U.S. products are then less expensive on the export market than theirs.During a conference in Aix-en-Provence, southern France, Sunday, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said "it is extremely important that the United States of America...has been...saying that a strong dollar is in the interests of the United States of America."The G8 will have a discussion about oil prices with the aim of defining a "reasonable" price range acceptable to both producing and consuming countries, which would help avoid extreme volatility of crude prices, another official said during the same briefing.