Group of 7 Balks at Boosting Levels of Support for Russia

WASHINGTON â€”  Four days after Russian voters gave President Boris N. Yeltsin a strong vote of confidence, the United States’ major financial allies refused Thursday to boost their offers of support for Moscow.

Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, reporting on the third meeting of the Group of Seven finance ministers in two months, said that he pressed the others to support a $2-billion fund--anchored by a conditional $500-million contribution by the United States--to help Russia convert its state-run economy to one based on private enterprise.

“No additional commitments were made,� he said, after a day of meetings here with his counterparts from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

However, he and other senior Treasury officials delivered a more upbeat report on other elements of the meeting. They portrayed it as a successful effort to commit the leading industrial democracies to programs aimed at promoting greater economic growth, although they agreed to no specific measures.

The United States went into the meeting with two primary goals: applying gentle pressure on Japan to join the United States in providing assistance to the struggling Russian economy and seeking a coordinated approach among its partners to pull the world out of the recession.

Even though signals arriving in Washington this spring have indicated that the other Group of Seven nations are moving in the direction favored by the Administration to stimulate the world economy, U.S. officials still would like them to do more.

The Central Bank in Germany has, after considerable complaining from Washington, lowered its two key interest rates--a step that has been met with expressions of approval from Bentsen. It is seen as a key step in increasing spending in Europe.

In Japan, the government has announced a $116-billion domestic economic stimulus plan. A stronger Japanese economy should provide a larger market for U.S. products, helping restore greater balance to the U.S.-Japanese trade equation.

The pressure for greater assistance for Russia follows by just two weeks the previous Group of Seven meeting in Tokyo at which a $43.4-billion international program of credits and deferred loan payments for Russia was announced.

Clinton Administration officials have looked to Japan to take a leading role. They believe that, despite the recent weakness in the economy there, Tokyo is in a better position to do so than Europe, where Bentsen has said that economic growth is dismal.

But neither a commitment of more assistance nor agreement by the seven countries to take specific steps to promote global growth emerged from the session.