The US$ rose against major currencies yesterday after officials from Japan and France aligned themselves with the U.S. position favoring a strong US$.

The US$ reached a 46-month high against the Japanese yen and a 31-month peak against the German mark after Japan's finance minister and the head of France's central bank said the Group of Seven nations backed U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin's exchange rate policy.

Rubin restated his well-known preference for a strong US$ on Tuesday.

``The United States is calling the shots now,'' said Jeffrey Yu, senior dealer at Sanwa Bank in New York.

``European central banks are very happy the dollar is higher. Japan, in the beginning, was worried about weakness of the yen translating to weaker Nikkei stocks, but it seems like everybody is thinking differently now.''

The US$ rose to 119.03 yen from 117.91 yen on Tuesday, and to 1.6421 marks from 1.6296 marks. It also set a 32-month high of 1.4360 Swiss francs, before settling at 1.4295, up from 1.4180 Swiss francs late Tuesday.

The C$ ended an active session weaker against the US$, as the rally in the C$ showed signs of slowing.

The US$ closed at $1.3373, up from $1.3365 on Tuesday. The C$ ended at US74.78 cents, down from US74.82 cents.

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