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TOKYO, May 18 (Reuters) The dollar kept most of its gains on Thursday after shooting higher on comments from European officials that the euro's gains in the past months could stymie economic growth in the region.

French Finance Minister Thierry Breton spooked euro bulls on Wednesday by warning that ''everything'' must be done to stop the single currency from climbing further against the dollar.

Germany also weighed in on recent currency strength, with its economy ministry saying that an ongoing climb in the euro could have negative effects on exports.

This spurred a round of short covering, driving the dollar to one-week highs and putting the brakes on the U.S. currency's plummet to an eight-month low against the yen and one-year trough versus the euro.

Government and central bank officials from around the world have been cranking up their rhetoric against dollar weakness since Group of Seven officials last month said that currency strength in emerging countries was adding to global imbalances.

''The market may not be responding to Japanese officials' comments about currency movements, but they sure are listening to comments from the U.S. and Europe,'' said Masafumi Yamamoto, currency strategist at Nikko Citigroup.

''Comments like the ones we saw yesterday could slow the pace of dollar losses.'' The dollar was at 110.90 yen in early Tokyo trade, after surging to 111.35 yen on Wednesday when the U.S. currency posted its biggest one-day gain since June.

Traders were anticipating the short covering to continue, although Japanese exporters were expected to step in to sell dollars in the mid-111 yen region.

The euro was little changed at $1.2745 after sliding 1.7 percent to around $1.27 the previous day.

Tokyo traders had mixed views of the surprisingly strong rise in U.S. consumer prices in April announced on Wednesday.

Some said that the 0.3 percent month-on-month gain in core prices offered another reason for the Federal Reserve to raise rates at its June meeting and was helping to fuel the dollar's short-covering rally.

Yet others argued that the climb did little to alter expectations that the Fed will pause next month after its two-year credit tightening campaign.

Instead, they said the price rise raised concerns that the U.S.

economy could be heading for a hard landing following two years of growth.

Reuters SK GC0620