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WASHINGTON -- Despite a robust world economy, finance ministers for the Group of Seven industrial powers voiced concern about the dangers to global growth from high energy prices, persistent trade imbalances and other threats.

Meeting late Friday in Washington, the ministers stressed the world economy remains "buoyant" and "inflation remains contained despite high oil prices," according to the official communiqu¨¦. "The strong global economic expansion continues into its fourth year and the outlook remains favorable," the document said. But the ministers also saw threats on the horizon. "Risks remain from oil market developments, global imbalances and growing protectionism," the report said.

The communiqu¨¦, additionally, affirmed "that exchange rates should reflect economic fundamentals," and ministers kept up pressure on China to make additional currency adjustments. "Greater exchange rate flexibility is desirable in emerging economies with large current account surpluses, especially China, for necessary adjustments to occur," the ministers said, using language that tracked communiqu¨¦s issued at two previous G7 gatherings.

The statement by the G7, which is made up of the United States, Canada, Britain, Italy, France, Germany and Japan, came at the end of a four-day visit to the U.S. by Chinese President Hu Jintao. Worried about the massive U.S. trade deficit, which exceeded $700 billion last year, President Bush and other U.S. officials pressed President Hu and other Chinese officials on a range of trade issues, including concerns that China's currency is kept artificially low to give its companies a competitive edge in world markets. The U.S. trade deficit with just China is the largest of any single country, totaling more than $200 billion last year.

In a separate statement on "global imbalances" that accompanied the communiqu¨¦, the ministers affirmed that addressing problem of distorted trade flows "is a shared responsibility." The statement noted the U.S., among other things, needs to raise private savings and gain better control of the federal budget. But it also cited the need for "emerging Asia, especially China," to embrace "greater flexibility in exchange rates," and to strengthen domestic demand and lessen "reliance on export-led growth strategies."

The G-7 meeting occurred on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the sister institutions. The G-7 statement also signaled support for proposals to overhaul the IMF, to sharpen the institution's focus on exchange-rate policies, and touched on a brewing debate about shared power within the institution, as the U.S., Europe and rising economic powers of Asia and Latin America tussle over who will wield clout over the lender in the future.

The fight is nominally over such mundane details as voting shares and board seats. But it also symbolizes a larger effort to cope with the fact that economic power in the world no longer lies solely with the U.S.-Europe-Japan triangle. The so-called emerging-market nations are seeking recognition that in many ways they have already emerged. "We are underestimated," says Jong Nam Oh, an IMF executive director from South Korea. "We hope for a rise in shares."

Managing Director Rodrigo Rato said in a speech Thursday that he hoped for a mandate to begin the process of rejiggering IMF shares in favor of emerging markets, and the G7 statement effectively endorsed the idea, suggesting "an ad hoc" increase in shares would help better "reflect members' international economic weight."

Notably, The U.S. has said it is willing to scale back its share of IMF votes from the current 17% -- but won't go below the 15% level that allows it to veto Fund decisions. Europeans are resisting calls to cut their share, even as American and emerging-market officials argue that they are now overrepresented.

"Europe is underrepresented," said a European official at the IMF. While acknowledging that Asian countries might argue that their share of the global economy -- and thus their right to wield influence in the IMF -- has risen, this official argued that Latin American economies are overrepresented and should bear the cost of any increase in Asian power.

In addition to global economic issues, G-7 ministers also debated details ¨C but put off a final decision ¨C of a plan to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines for diseases that afflict countries too poor to afford them.

G-7 finance ministers have been working for months on a pilot project intended to subsidize the purchase of new vaccines, if drug companies develop ones that meet certain standards of efficacy and safety. Under the evolving program, G-7 countries could commit to spend from $800 million to $6 billion on the vaccines. Once the G-7 spends the pledged amount, the drug companies would be allowed to sell the vaccines at a discounted price in the developing world. Yet to be decided is the question of which of six diseases most prevalent in the Third World -- including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis -- will be targeted in the pilot project. "We call for the additional work necessary to make its launch possible in 2006," the G7 communique said.