By Randall Palmer
OTTAWA, July 6 (Reuters) - This week's G8 talks are not expected include any reference to China's questions about the U.S. dollar as the main reserve currency in their closing statements, a senior Canadian official said on Monday.
And even though the G8 finance ministers last month referred to the need to prepare exit strategies from stimulus programs, the emphasis at the talks will be more on continuing to boost the world's flagging economies, the official said.
The Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialized nations will meet in L'Aquila, Italy, on Wednesday and expand their talks to include China and other emerging economies on Thursday.
China has given mixed messages about the need to discuss alternative reserve currencies to the dollar. But the Canadian official did not expect this to make its way into the communiques of the G8 or the G8 plus emerging countries.
"There may well be some discussion around this. For the time being though, the issue right now is not so much on the currency question going forward but rather again, how do we deal with the crisis we have with us right now," said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
"I can tell you I don't foresee anything in the declaration on that, on reserve currencies.
Leaders are trying both to offer hope and project realism on economic prospects, trying to spend their way out of a recession while preparing exit strategies to avoid bigger problems down the road.
"I think the view generally among the G8 is that while we need to give some attention, look ahead to the challenges that we face in unwinding some of the arrangements we've made, our job continues to be to promote the recovery and that will be the emphasis that I'll expect you'll find in the declaration," said the Canadian official, who will be traveling to Italy.
Another official, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's press secretary Dimitri Soudas, said it was important not to let up on promises already made.
"Although there are some signs of stability, significant risk and uncertainty remain on the road to recovery," he said.
"Although we have seen some signs of stabilization, we must make sure governments and central banks do not let up on commitments that were made in Washington and in London. We must follow through on fixing the financial system, dealing with toxic assets, ensuring strong financial regulation."
He was referring to summits in November and April of the Group of 20 developed and developing nations.
There has been debate about whether the G8 or the G20 should play the biggest role in responding to to the global financial crisis, but Canada made it clear its top priority was the G8, and maybe G20 summits should even stop at some point.
"From our point of view the G8 is a proven organization where ... people can have an intimate conversation among friends, where we can show leadership and commitment," the official said.
"The G20 was convened at the leader level to deal with this crisis and has been, by all accounts, doing quite as good job of it. The question is will there be a role for the G20 at leaders level following the crisis." (Additional reporting by Louise Egan, Ka Yan Ng and Frank Pingue)