Group of Seven Agrees on Russian Aid Package : Economy: It would rival the post-World War II Marshall Plan in scope.

WASHINGTON —  Finance officials from the world’s seven richest industrial countries Sunday endorsed the broad outlines of an economic assistance package for the former Soviet Union that could over time rival the Marshall Plan in scope.

The endorsement by the so-called Group of Seven countries--the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada--represented a victory for President Bush, who unveiled the proposed $24-billion Western aid package for Russia earlier this month.

In a joint communique, the finance ministers said the West was ready to provide up to $18 billion to Russia and support an additional $6-billion fund to stabilize the Russian currency, the ruble.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, key architect of Russia’s economic reforms, made a personal appeal for assistance Sunday afternoon.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady described Gaidar as “an enormously convincing person.” He said the finance officials recognize that there is a “Russian brand of democracy” and they were not trying to interfere with that.

Brady, at a late-night news conference following the meeting, said there is no timetable for the assistance and indicated much has to be worked out.

Of the $6-billion ruble stabilization fund, he said, “I’m not even totally sure that’s exactly what the Russians will want.”

In all, the finance officials spent 14 hours over two days discussing the Russian aid package and other issues facing the world economy.

The meeting ran four hours longer than scheduled Sunday. Officials said it was not the Russian financing package but disagreement over policies needed to spur the sluggish world economy that caused the delay.

Brady said the delay was caused by “inordinate arguing over words.” He added that there were questions over whether it is productive to issue communiques from such meetings since they often are not taken to mean what they are supposed to mean.

In a statement on economic policy, the finance officials said they remained concerned that economic activity this year will be below potential and “inadequate to achieve a reduction in unemployment.”

The communique noted that global interest rates in many cases remained at high levels, a point Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady has been making for more than a year.

While stopping short of making specific commitments to cut interest rates, the communique did pledge efforts to boost growth in their nations and noted specifically that the decline in the Japanese yen was not contributing to the process of getting the world growing at a faster rate.

Japanese finance officials complained before the weekend meetings that they had been unable to cut their interest rates further because that could put more downward pressure on the yen.

By specifically noting the yen’s level, the finance officials apparently were signaling world currency markets that they would be ready to intervene by buying yen on the open market to support the Japanese currency should the need arise.

On the question of aid to Russia, the communique said finance officials from the United States and its allies “welcomed the reforms already undertaken in Russia. They underscored that there is no productive alternative to establishing a market economy in Russia through the adoption of strong and comprehensive macroeconomic and structural reforms.”

The communique mentioned six specific reform guidelines the finance ministers would be monitoring, including reduction of Russia’s government budget deficit, the curbing of excessive growth in the supply of the ruble and the establishment of a legal framework to support private property rights.

As long as Russia is following this reform program, the seven countries said, they were committed to supporting a $24-billion assistance package, including $6 billion for a fund to stabilize the value of the ruble and make it convertible on foreign currency markets.

The meeting of finance officials from the seven rich countries was held in advance of the annual spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The two multinational lending institutions are expected to offer membership to Russia and the other former Soviet republics today.

Gaidar is to meet with IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus and other officials of the agency’s policy-setting interim committee. He also has talks scheduled with World Bank President Lewis Preston.

Those two organizations are expected to play the lead roles in coordinating Western assistance that could top $150 billion in coming years for Russia and the other 14 republics, a figure that would rival in today’s dollars the amount of aid the United States provided under the Marshall Plan after World War II to rebuild Europe.

Bush first unveiled the broad outlines of a $24-billion package of assistance for Russia this year.