  Analysing the Brans-Dicke solutions for the dust phase, we show that, for
negative values of $\omega$, they contain scenarios that display an initial
subluminal expansion followed by an inflationary phase. We discuss these
solutions with respect to the results of the observation of high redshif
supernova as well as the age problem and structure formation. We stablish
possible connections of these solutions with those emerging from string
effective models.
