Germany backed France's call for deeper talks on currency values today, although Paris remained isolated in its pressure on the European Central Bank over interest rates.
A German government spokesman ruled out putting any political pressure on the ECB, a day after the central bank president railed against France for trying to influence its monetary policy.
"What decisions are made by the independent ECB is solely a matter for the ECB, and these decisions should neither be prepared nor influenced by political discussions," Germany's Ulrick Wilhelm said at a regular news conference. But European discussion on currency developments are another matter.
"Of course there can be talks," he said. "How we react both nationally and on a consultative European basis to certain global developments such as currency disparities, to the immense growth of currency reserves in other parts of the world, is legitimate," he added.
"This has obviously occupied all governments for some time, and this will continue to be the object of meetings, by all means also in greater depth, as Paris has urged." French President Nicolas Sarkozy is pressing for political leaders to have "real dialogue" with the European Central Bank over economic policy.
In particular, he wants the ECB to consider the euro's strength and its impact on growth when monetary policy is being set. One French official has said the aim is to try and influence the ECB and discuss monetary policy. That brought a tough rebuttal on Wednesday from ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, who said that "such declarations are not acceptable". But there was no backing down by the French government on Thursday.
"France has never asked for an end to ECB independence," a spokesman for Sarkozy told a weekly news conference, calling it "false debate". "But as far as maintaining a discussion on European monetary policy goes, the president is not about to give up on that."