PARIS, Dec 31: In a sign that a dramatic economic change is looming in Europe. France’s national lottery gave contestants an unprecedented choice on Wednesday.

If they won the jackpot, „. ,._rs could take a cheque in French francs, or they could choose to receive their winnings in a new currency, the euro.

That new currency will not appear as banknotes and coins for anouter three years. But be-' ginning Friday, it will hold the economic fate of 11 nations and 290 million people.

With the dawn of the new year at midnight Thursday, European nations will merge their monetary policies and launch a Joint currency.

The euro will exist as a virtual currency at first, traded only in banks, bond and stock markets until January 2002. when it becomes available as-cash.

But the new joint currency will have significant impact on individual European economies, as each nation surrenders its right to unilaterally set interest rates or devalue the currency io fix regional economic problems. From now on, the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank will handle those decisions.

On Thursday, finance ministers and central bankers from 11 of the 15 members of the European Union will meet in Brussels to lock the exchange rates of their currencies against the euro. Britain. Sweden, Denmark and Greece will not be part of the monetary union, at least for now.

Financial world working overtime

Once the exchange rates are set. the euro's birth is essentially unstoppable.

•To mark the occasion, thousands of balloons will be released from EU headquarters in Brussels, accompanied by the popping of champagne corks.

Bankers and brokers are gearing up for the launch, working overtime to reconfigure computer systems and adapt trading floors to accommodate the euro.

"We will be forced to deal simultaneously with francs and euros in our whole computer system during the first three-year period," said Jean-Francois Colin, euro coordinator of France's Banque Nationale de Paris. "That's why we had to change 60,000 of our computer systems."

For the rest of the world, the euro will make visiting the 11 participating countries somewhat easier. Travelers will be able to use euros when they pay with credit cards and checks, and it will make comparing prices between countries simpler. —CNN Internet