Ministers and central bank governors from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States also welcomed a just-announced move toward greater currency flexibility by China.

The action came at the end of a one-day meeting here and ahead of a weekend gathering of World Bank and International Monetary Fund policymakers.

The ministers concluded that the global economy "continues to expand and the outlook is positive for further growth."

"However, higher energy prices, growing global imbalances and rising protectionist pressures have increased the risks to the outlook," the G7 statement warned.

A European official said earlier that the group would send a delegation to oil-producing nations in mid-October to get a better grip on supply-and-demand problems.

The team will comprise French Finance Minister Thierry Breton, his British counterpart Gordon Brown and probably a senior US Treasury politician, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The rapid rise of oil prices to vertiginous heights has caused deep disquiet among the major industrial powers, whose energy-hungry economies risk a slowdown from more expensive crude and its accompanying inflation.

The G7 ministers hailed moves by the International Energy Agency, of which they are all members, and the OPEC cartel of producers to make more oil available to markets.

But they also asserted that "significant investment is needed in exploration, production, energy infrastructure and refinery capacity" and said they supported better oil conservation policies and the pursuit of renewable sources of energy "as long-term solutions."

The statement also reaffirmed a commitment made by the Group of Eight -- the G7 plus Russia -- to finance an initiative to cancel debts owed the World Bank, and to a lesser extent the IMF and the African Development Bank, by some of the world's poorest nations.

The initiative was backed in principle at a G8 summit in July in Gleneagles, Scotland.

"We remain committed to fully financing this relief on a fair burden share basis and stand prepared to demonstrate our Gleneagles financial commitments consistent with our individual budgetary and parliamentary systems," the statement said.

In a separate move, finance ministers from the Group of Eight reinforced their determination to make good on the debt pledge in a letter to World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz and signed by all eight of them.