French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Tuesday for joint action on foreign exchange imbalances, urging the United States to cut its budget and current account deficits and calling on Japan to review the value of the yen.
"We won't find the solution to the difficulty of stabilising exchange rates alone," Sarkozy, on a visit to China, said in a speech to the French community of Shanghai.
"The Americans have to reduce their deficits, the Japanese also have to think about the value of their currency. We, the Europeans, have to work with the other great currencies of the world," he said.