BRUSSELS Belgium AP With just a month to go before the launch of the euro European Union finance ministers reached an 11th-hour agreement Tuesday on who should speak for the single-currency bloc on the world stage. The agreement resolved months of deadlock between big and small nations over who should represent the 11-nation currency bloc at the G-7 group of world economic powers and other international meetings. Under the compromise three existing G-7 nations Germany France and Italy keep their seats and will take turns to represent the bloc. Details of the deal were sketchy but it appeared that smaller nations would also get a chance to set at G-7 meetings when they holds the six-month euro-zone presidency. That means German Finance Minister Oskar Lafontaine will speak for the euro-zone for the first six months of 1999 to be joined by his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niniisto for second half of the year. The European Central Bank which will oversee monetary policy in the euro-zone will replace national central banks at G-7 meetings. The EU's executive Commission will offer only ``technical assistance'' to the European delegation. The launch of the euro as the shared currency of 11 EU nations will create a single bloc that could rival the United States and Japan as a global economic power. But while U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Japanese Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa can always get on the phone to discuss the world's economic situation nobody was sure whom to call when they wanted to speak to the euro-bloc. The rotating system of euro-zone presidencies should go some way to meeting that need. The deal is set to be confirmed by EU leaders at their year-end summit next week in Vienna Austria. The issue had provoked a rift between the EU's existing G-7 members who refused to relinquish their seats and smaller euro-zone nations who demanded some sort of representation. There was no immediate reaction to the deal from other G-7 nations the United States Japan and Canada. Britain the EU's fourth G-7 members is staying out of the euro. Later Tuesday the ministers were set to review plans to close tax loopholes that cost national treasuries billions of dollars in lost revenue. Officials played down talk of a rift between Britain and Germany over tax plans. British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown criticized recent ``scare stories'' in the London press about alleged German plans to impose EU-wide taxes. However he repeated British opposition to any such plans. ``Some people want to argue that there is an inevitability about a single currency leading to a single tax rate'' Brown told the British Braodcasting Corp. ``That is not the way that I see it.'' APW19981201.1414.txt.body.html APW19981201.1136.txt.body.html