WORLD : Germanys Form Monetary Panel

BONN — West German Economics Minister Helmut Haussmann said today Bonn and East Berlin have set up a commission to arrange a monetary union and it would hold its first meeting next week.

Monetary union would create a virtual merger of the German economies and is viewed as a first step toward reunification, government officials said.

Officials from both delegations, who asked not to be named, said there had been no concrete decisions on actual details of monetary union.

Bonn hopes the prospect of economic support will slow the exodus of 2,000 East Germans daily to West Germany and head off social tensions that could undermine Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s chances in December’s elections. For the East German leadership, desperately trying to hold the nation together ahead of March 18 elections, monetary union looks like the one way to restore confidence in its mark.