Finance ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialised nations have agreed a plan for reducing the massive debts of the world's poorest countries.

The Finance Ministers also agreed a compromise solution to a long-standing disagreement on how the euro zone should be represented in G7 finance meetings and debated ways to finance the reconstruction of the Balkans after the end of the Kosovo conflict.

EU Commissioner Mr Yves-Thibault de Silguy said the EU and the World Bank would send a mission to Kosovo "as soon as possible". French Finance Minister Mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn also told reporters at the end of Saturday's one-day meeting that the ministers had agreed on a plan for Third World debt reduction.

He gave no further details but said the proposal would be put to G8 heads of state and government - the G7 plus Russia - at their three-day summit which starts in Cologne on Thursday.

The G7 ministers also agreed on a mix-and-match solution to cope with the problem of how to account for the arrival of the euro single currency and a European Central Bank at their meetings.

The agreement reached on Saturday will allow the ECB president to attend the part of future G7 finance meetings devoted to the world economy, exchange rates and multilateral surveillance, along with the finance minister of the euro zone presidency if he is not a G7 member.