By Jan Strupczewski and Tamora Vidaillet
LUXEMBOURG, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers were to discuss the economic risks of euro appreciation at talks with the head of the European Central Bank on Monday, as the single currency traded near a 14-month high versus the dollar.
It was unclear whether anything new would come of their talks in Luxembourg, which were delayed to a start time of 1700 GMT and moved to a castle, officials said, because of milk price protests by 2,000 farmers in tractors at the original venue.
Austrian Finance Minister Josef Proell told reporters the euro exchange rate could be discussed but was not key for the meeting of the so-called Eurogroup, where ministers and ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet confer regularly on economic strategy.
"It's clear that in the future, in the next months, we have to have a look at the euro compared to the U.S. dollar, compared to the Chinese currency, but it's not the main focus," Proell told reporters.
On Friday, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said euro appreciation could become a problem for an economy that is struggling to emerge from a year-long recession, and that the matter could arise at the Monday deliberations.
"I would suppose that over the course of Monday's meeting we will address the subject with the president of the ECB. We will tell you afterwards whether there is something new to be said," said Juncker, who is also Luxembourg's prime minister.
"I'm not concerned too much by the exchange rate we are observing. But if it continues in the way it started weeks ago, I could become concerned at a certain junction. Don't ask me where that junction is located exactly," Juncker said.
The euro, whose gains make exports from the euro zone more expensive, has risen about 20 percent versus the dollar since early March and roughly the same amount versus the Chinese yuan, which is virtually pegged to the U.S. currency.
It was trading close to $1.4950 late in the European day on Monday, near 14-month highs against the dollar.
Juncker said he and Trichet planned to travel to China before the end of the year along with Joaquin Almunia, the European Union's economic affairs commissioner. The three visited China to discuss exchange rates in late 2007.
Exchange rates were discussed by finance ministers of the Group of Seven industrial nations in Istanbul at the start of this month but their post-meeting communique merely restated earlier diplomatically worded calls for the yuan to rise.
With the dollar weakening and the yuan largely tracking it, France has been the most vocal European country of late to argue that the euro zone should not have to bear the brunt of currency movements that make life harder for its exporters.
Germany, customarily more reluctant to cry foul publicly on exchange rates, has yet to declare its hand but Chancellor Angela Merkel is for now trying to form a new centre-right coalition after Sept. 27 elections.
Germany was represented at Monday's Eurogroup meeting by Joerg Asmussen, deputy finance minister in the outgoing coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. (Additional reporting by Marcin Grajewski, John O'Donnell, Brian Rohan; Editing by Dale Hudson)