BOCA RATON, Fla. (CNNfn) - Far from hinting at a Group of Seven shift to prevent a further drop in the dollar, Treasury Secretary John Snow insisted that the finance chiefs of the world's richest nations had agreed this weekend to maintain flexible exchange rates, a policy in place since the group last met in September.

Find out what Treasury Secretary John Snow had to say about the falling dollar in an interview with CNNfn's Kathleen Hays following the G-7 meeting in Florida. Play video (Real or Windows Media)

During an interview with CNNfn following the G-7 meeting in Boca Raton, Fla., Snow said Sunday the G-7 agreed "to allow market forces to set exchange rates, to let the fundamentals of the marketplace drive exchange rate changes. That was a clear consensus that came out of both Dubai and Boca Raton and it is entirely consistent with U.S. views."

This contrasts with the positions taken by some other G-7 officials that a new sentence was inserted in the latest communiqué to show that the group had decided the dollar should fall no further in currency markets.

Asked to comment on statements attributed to European Central Bank president Jean Claude Trichet, that there was a clear G-7 consensus on the diagnosis and measures that need to be taken in foreign exchange markets, Snow said, "I'm not sure exactly what he has in his mind. I think what he had in mind is probably the existence of a broad consensus on the need for flexible exchange rates."

The dollar has fallen steadily over the last year and a half, losing more than 20 percent of its value against the euro since the G-7 met in Dubai last September. U.S. officials have done nothing to halt its slide, neither in word by saying they did not wish to see it fall further, nor in deed by intervening in currency markets.

In spite of the decline, Snow, the White House point man on currency, has continued to insist the U.S. favors a strong dollar.

Economists point out that the falling dollar helps U.S. exporters sell their goods overseas. U.S. exports surged 19 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

European officials have been complaining that the falling dollar and rising euro are hurting their economies by making Europe's exports more expensive at a time when their economies are struggling to grow.

Japan has taken action, intervening in currency markets to the tune of billions of dollars to buoy the dollar and stop the yen from rising.

Publicly, the U.S. supports a strong dollar. On Sunday, when asked to explain how, if the "strong" dollar is in the U.S. interest, it has been permitted to fall so far and so fast over the past few months, Snow would only say, "I never comment on the relative value of currencies. What I do is reiterate our basic policy which is of course that we support the strong dollar."

In what could be seen as an attempt to refute economists who say the U.S. is allowing the dollar to fall in order to boost its exports and help its economy grow faster, Snow said, "We also always add that -- and I think it's a critically important point -- nobody can devalue their way to prosperity."

Snow didn't hint at any new initiatives to prevent the dollar from falling further.

Currencies are "strong when they reflect market fundamentals, not when they're artificially propped up," he said.

Snow's reference to artificially propping up currencies appeared to refer to government actions to intervene in currency markets. For example, if the U.S. government wanted to keep the dollar from falling further against the euro, it could buy dollars and sell euros in the foreign exchange market.

He did not rule out, in the broadest terms, that the U.S. could intervene in currency markets. Asked to outline the policy guidelines the U.S. follows when it decides to intervene in currency markets, he said, "Of course, we wouldn't articulate those policies except to say that we never say never and we have a strong, strong support for the policy of open competitive markets."

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A big theme for the White House team going into the G-7 meeting was that the U.S. cannot be the sole engine of global economic growth, that the rest of the industrialized world must do more to spur growth in their own economies.

But asked if there were any new initiatives agreed behind the scenes at the weekend meeting Snow said, "No, not at this meeting. But of course that wasn't the purpose of this meeting." He said the there was a reaffirmation of the need to reduce the debt burdens of Iraq and Afghanistan, and that he had bilateral meetings with the finance chiefs of both nations.