Finance ministers from mainly French-speaking African countries are due to meet in the Gabonese capital, Libreville, today, to conclude discussions on the future of their common currency, the CFA.

Today's meeting will follow a day of talks by finance ministry officials and experts from the fifteen countries that use the CFA.

There are concerns and rumours over a possible devaluation of the currency when France joins the planned single European currency, the Euro.

France -- the former colonial power -- currently guarantees the value of the CFA by maintaining a fixed rate of one French Franc to one hundred African francs.

But the former French prime minister, Pierre Messmer, has said that the European Union would not support the CFA the way France had done in the past.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service