Leaders of the Group of Seven industrial nations would probably issue the statement on Friday, a US official said. Officials from G7 countries said the statement would set an agenda for both long- and short-term action.

Officials also said preparations were under way for a special G7 summit to discuss the economic turbulence, although US treasury secretary Robert Rubin told reporters on Thursday night there were no plans to hold an emergency meeting.

"There's been an enormous amount of work done in this area," Rubin said after a speech on US-Africa relations. "And the thought was now to try to work off that, to put together a framework of principles to provide guidance going forward and that's the work that is going on right now."

A White House spokesman said US president Bill Clintonhas been on the phone this week with other G7 leaders discussing group issues, including the statement.

The statement was expected to be in line with Clinton's call earlier this month for a "new mechanism" to prevent countries from falling victim to financial crises and provide much-needed support money for battered economies.

"It will be about some reforms in the line of this architecture that we've been talking about," he said. "There is a precautionary financing vehicle that they've been working on. I think it will involve that."

Another G7-government source said, "It (the statement) is going to speak to what the G7 countries agree on as a sort of agenda for action, in terms of what sort of collective action must be taken in order to deal with the current circumstances and hopefully set infrastructures that are more sophisticated in the future."

Clinton discussed the statement Thursday in a 10-minute telephone call with German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart saidwhile accompanying the president in Florida.

He said Clinton discussed G7 issues earlier this week in calls to British prime minister Tony Blair, Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien and Italian prime minister Massimo D'Alema.

Clinton has proposed a new lending system that would be based in the International Monetary Fund and give countries quick access to money to ward off financial crises.

Brazil is seen as a test case for the idea, which is nearing completion of an expected $30-billion international rescue deal based largely on a precautionary pool of money to be paid out only if economic problems worsened.

In Germany, a government spokesman said "there are certain preparations," for a summit, but the date was uncertain. "The process is under way and there should be movement soon," spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye said.

Clinton was receptive to calls by Blair for a special G7 meeting in London, the US official said.

"President Clinton is receptive to such a meeting at the appropriate time," theofficial said. "But no meeting has been scheduled."

Federal Reserve governor Edward Kelley said on Thursday financial markets appeared to have become less volatile lately, but that it was too early to say the volatility was over.