Friday December 31, 10:57 pm Eastern Time Minor Y2K problems in French banking system (adds new statement on hitches)

PARIS, Jan 1 (Reuters) - France survived the switchover to the new millennium without major computer problems in energy, telecommunications and banking but some minor hitches were nonetheless recorded in the banking system.

Finance Minister Christian Sautter, the government's point man for the Y2K computer problem, said he was not worried about possible problems when France went back to work on Monday and computer systems came under heavy pressure once again.

``Our country has overcome the millennium bug well,'' he told journalists at the government's main Y2K control centre.

``The major systems in energy, telecommunications, apparently railways as well, are functioning well.''

Sautter also said at first that no incidents were noted by financial institutions but his office added that there had been some slight glitches in which computer systems functioned normally but showed errors in dates.

``A limited number of machines which did not stand the switchover halted,'' a ministry statement said. No further details were given.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/991231/ve.html

-- LOON (blooney10@aol.com), December 31, 1999