Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder today repeated a call for European Union budget rules to be applied more flexibly as the Bundesbank prepared to present opposing views at a conference in Berlin.
Mr Schroeder told reporters after talks with the German parliament's European affairs committee that the EU fiscal rulebook needed to place more emphasis on supporting growth.
He also called for EU countries' contributions to the bloc's €100 billion a year budget to be taken into account when budget deficits are assessed.
Germany, whose budget deficit has exceeded the EU Stability and Growth Pact's cap of three percent of gross domestic product for the past three years, is the biggest net contributor to the EU budget.
His comments clashed with those of Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer, who said on Wednesday governments should devote the fruits of growth to debt reduction and not public spending if they wanted to ensure sustained long-term growth.
"We feel that one shouldn't change the rules when the rules are fundamentally good, and because they have been badly applied," Mr Noyer told France's Radio Classique.
"We have to ensure they are better applied." Noyer added that easing budget deficit rules would trigger an explosion of public debt, smother growth and pass tough economic decisions onto future generations.
Germany, France and Italy, the euro zone's Big Three economies, have argued strongly for public spending on R&D or defence to be excluded from the public deficits. Germany also wants the costs of its reunification excluded.