TOKYO - G7 financial ministers and central bank chiefs agreed Friday to conduct a concerted currency intervention to stem the yen's recent sharp rise against the US dollar.

The G7 financial leaders announced their decision in a statement released after an emergency telephone conference on the economic impact of the great earthquake in Japan on March 11.

The United States, Britain, Canada and the European Central Bank "will join with Japan, on March 18, 2011, in concerted intervention in exchange markets," said the joint statement.

The G7 groups seven advanced economies of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

The planned intervention has been the first coordinated move by the group since September 2010, when they sold the Japanese currency to purchase euros.