1.   British finance minister Barber remarked that reaching an agreement would only be twice as difficult in the new forum as in the old.

2.   Also in Washington, French finance minister Jean Arthuis pledged France would step up its efforts to put its fiscal house in order.

3.   Adding to the perception that fiscal discipline has succumbed to electoral pressure, Netanyahu is now simultaneously a candidate for re-election and his own finance minister.

4.   Foreign policy is the one high-profile subject that he can run unchallenged by his powerful and ambitious finance minister, Gordon Brown.

5.   JAPAN WARNED ABOUT SPENDING The Japanese finance minister warned against a huge government spending package to prop up the economy.

6.   Last week, finance ministers from rich and poor nations meeting in Washington asked the International Monetary Fund to monitor such economies more closely in the future.

7.   Mestrallet spent six years at the French Treasury and two years as adviser to then finance minister, socialist Jacques Delors, before moving to Suez.

8.   Most recently, as first deputy finance minister, he concentrated on closing loopholes in tax and customs rules to reduce evasion.

9.   Others familiar with his case say they fear that if economic mismanagement suddenly becomes a crime, finance ministers around the world will be paralyzed.

10.   Some analysts expect Defense Minister Kaspar Villiger, a Free Democrat, to switch over to finance minister.