FRENCH Finance Minister, Mr Dominique Strauss Kahn, has said that France's public deficit in 1997, the crucial measurement year for European monetary union, would he more than 3 per cent of gross domestic product.

But he stressed Paris was committed to joining a single European currency on time and vowed that the new Socialist led government had no intention of letting the deficit run out of control.

Mr Strauss Kahn's statement to a business conference was the first time a senior minister had stated clearly that France would not meet the strictest reading of the Maastricht treaty budget criterion for joining the single currency.

"What I can see as clearly as everyone is that we are not at the 3 per cent set out in the Finance Act. When you say you are not at 3 per cent, that also means you are not at 3.1 per cent either, but I cannot tell you how far we are beyond that," the Minister said.