BALLADUR URGES G-7 TO RESPECT LOUVRE ACCORD
  French Finance Minister Edouard Balladur
  said the Group of Seven (G-7) industrial countries should
  respect pledges on monetary policy made in the February Louvre
  accord on currency stability.
      "We have to strengthen the cooperation between the seven
  major industrial countries and remind ourselves of the pledges
  we made at the Louvre," he told journalists.
      "They were not simply pledges to maintain currency
  stability, but also to conduct a certain type of economic and
  monetary policy," he added.
      Balladur's comments came after U.S. Treasury Secretary
  James Baker said on Sunday that the U.S. Would have to
  re-examine the Louvre accords in the light of the rise in West
  German short-term interest rates.
      Balladur was one of the main architects of the Louvre
  accord and has invested considerable political capital in
  defending them.