Cyprus applied Tuesday to join Europe's common currency, the euro, the European Commission confirmed.

The 13-nation euro dropped slightly Monday against the U.S. dollar as traders digested comments made at the weekend meeting of the Group of Seven finance ministers.

The euro stayed lower against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday after improved activity in the U.S. service sector offered a bulwark against the common currency.

The 13-nation euro was down slightly Thursday against the U.S. dollar, which regained some ground lost the previous day after the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate decision.

The euro rose and the British pound climbed to its highest level against the U.S. dollar in more than 14 years on Tuesday following positive economic data from Europe.

The euro fell back slightly against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday despite lackluster economic reports from the United States.

At the stroke of the New Year Slovenia formally scrapped its national currency, the tolar, to adopt the euro and become the 13th member of the eurozone, in what has been labelled as a historical step for Slovenia as well as the EU. The transition went smoothly and people can already withdraw crisp euros from ATMs.

On 1 January 2007, the euro became the monetary unit of the Republic of Slovenia. Slovenia is the first new member state of European Union which adopted the euro and thus became the 13th member of the eurozone.

In three days' time, the Republic of Slovenia will adopt the euro, which will then be shared by 316.6 million people in 13 European Union countries, including 2.0 million Slovenians. Slovenia joined the EU in 2004 at the same time as nine other countries. It is the first amongst those countries to adopt the euro.