PARIS, Jan 22 (AFP-NT) - The Group of Seven (G7) leading industrial countries sought to convey a signal of confidence to business and consumers at the weekend, asserting that Japan, helped by a stronger dollar, was poised for early recovery and Europe for more vigorous growth. In day-long talks here on Saturday, finance ministers and central bank governors of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States firmly dismissed fears that western Europe might be sliding into recession. Minimizing the scope of the current slowdown, which was "only seen as a pause" according to British Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke, they reaffirmed that conditions for sustained recovery remain in place. France's Jean Arthuis, host of the meeting, stressed they agreed on the need to stay the course, maintaining their medium-term strategy for growth and jobs by steadily cutting public deficits and going ahead with structural reforms. This course should contribute over time to a further easing of interest rates in Europe, which should help reignite expansion in the region, improving export prospects for its partners, including the United States. US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and other top US aides stressed on Saturday for the third time in as many days that a "strong" dollar was in the best interest of the US economy. They drew cheers from other G7 officials including German central bank chief Hans Tietmeyer, an outspoken critic of last year's US "benign neglect" of the dollar. The US currency's plunge early last year against the two currencies delayed economic recovery in Japan and cut growth in Germany, Europe's economic locomotive, by a full point to just under 2.0 percent last year. Its recovery against the yen over the past half year or so has already improved prospects for a revival of activity in Japan, whose new Finance Minister Wataru Kubo said Tokyo was now expecting a 1996 growth rate of 2.0 percent. AFP /AA1234/211241 GMT JAN 96

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